Kerala HC notice to Governor on plea against order upholding Kannur VC’s re-appointment

PTI, Dec 17, 2021, 5:19 PM IST

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Chancellor of the varsities and others in an appeal against its single judge’s ruling that there was no violation of any statutory provision in the re-appointment of Gopinathan Ravindran as the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Kannur University.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly, however, did not issue notice to Ravindran.

The notice to the Chancellor, i.e. the Governor of the State, would be dispatched to the Raj Bhavan through a special messenger, the court said.

The appeal filed by Dr Premachandran Keezhoth, a member of the varsity’s Senate, would be heard after the Christmas vacation.

The petition, filed through advocate Nisha George, seeks setting aside of the single judge decision of December 15 and quashing Ravindran’s appointment as VC.

It contended that since Ravindran was already over 60 years old, there was a statutory bar on him being appointed as VC.

Therefore, he could not have been appointed as VC of the varsity by terming it as a ”re-appointment”, the appeal contends.

The single judge, in his December 15 order, had said that re-appointment was different from appointment and the procedure adopted for the latter need not be followed when re-appointing someone.

The single judge had also held that for re-appointment age criteria would not be applicable.