New Delhi | Taking serious exception to Kerala Governor and chancellor Rajendra Arlekar "not looking" at the Sudhanshu Dhulia committee report on appointment of vice chancellors of two universities, the Supreme Court on Friday said it is not just an ordinary piece of paper and he is bound to take a call on it.

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan asked the Kerala governor to take a call on the report within a week and apprise the decision to the apex court on December 5.

The top court passed the order after senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the Kerala government, complained that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had forwarded his recommendations for appointment of vice chancellors for APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology, based on the report of Justice Dhulia panel to the governor-cum-chancellor but no decision has been taken till now.

The bench noted that in compliance with the order dated August 18, Justice (retd) Dhulia, undertook the necessary exercise and has prepared a report accordingly.

"The report has been forwarded to the chief minister of the state. The chief minister in turn has forwarded the report to the chancellor of the two universities. It is expected of the chancellor to now look into the report filed by the committee headed by Justice Dhulia," the bench ordered.

It noted that the submission of the counsel appearing for the chancellor that the report from Justice (retd) Dhulia and the chief minister has been received but not the records related to the names, which have been recommended to be the vice-chancellors.

"We fail to understand why the non-receipt of the records is coming in the way for the purpose of looking into the report filed by the committee. In such circumstances, we now expect the chancellor to take a decision in accordance with the report of the committee. We may remind one and all that the committee was appointed with the concurrence of all the parties," Justice Pardiwala said.

During the course of the brief hearing, the top court asked the counsel appearing for the chancellor to go out of the courtroom and seek instructions and make a statement as to when the decision can be taken.

"We want a statement to be made, how much time is needed," the bench told the counsel.

The counsel said that there are some issues, which need to be looked into.

"We are not allowing you to make any further arguments. This is not just an ordinary piece of paper. A former judge of the Supreme Court has looked into it. This is the law of land. So you are bound to look into the report and take an appropriate call. We expect you to take a decision on the report. When the decision is placed before us, we will decide if the decision is right or wrong," Justice Pardiwala said.

The counsel for the governor submitted that some time be granted to him for seeking instructions.

The bench posted the matter for hearing next Friday and noted the submission of Gupta that according to his knowledge, all relevant records were forwarded to the chancellor.

At the outset, Gupta said that despite the chief minister forwarding his recommendation based on the report of Justice Dhulia-led panel, the governor has not taken any decision.

Justice Pardiwala asked the governor's counsel, "Has the Chancellor looked into the report of Justice Dhulia? Why has he not looked into it?" The counsel replied that they had also written to Justice Dhulia seeking the record of the proceedings.

On September 2, the Kerala governor moved the apex court for exclusion of Vijayan from the selection process of the vice chancellors.

The governor said neither of the universities envisioned any role for the chief minister in the selection process.

On August 18, to end the "impasse" between Kerala governor and the state government over the appointment of vice-chancellors, the apex court appointed former apex court judge Dhulia as head of a panel meant for shortlisting names.

Justice Dhulia demitted office as Supreme Court judge on August 9.

On July 30, the top court asked both the Kerala government and Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the governor, to "work out some mechanism in harmony" to resolve the dispute for the appointment of the vice-chancellors in both the universities.

The chancellor moved the top court challenging the order of the division bench of the high court disposing of a plea filed against a single judge's order setting aside the November 27, 2024 notification appointing Professor K Sivaprasad of Cochin University of Science and Technology as vice-chancellor, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University.

The Kerala government challenged the notification before the high court saying the notification stipulated the appointment was till further orders whereas Section 13 (7) of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University Act, 2015 says "for a period of not exceeding six months in the aggregate".