New Delhi | To end the "impasse" between Kerala Governor and state government over the appointment of vice-chancellors for two technical universities in the state, the Supreme Court on Monday appointed former apex court judge Sudhanshu Dhulia as head of a panel meant for shortlisting names.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan said the committee, search-cum-selection panel, would prepare the list of three names each for APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and Kerala University of Digital Sciences Innovation and Technology at the earliest.
"We firmly believe that this impasse, which has been created, should be taken care of at earliest. In such circumstances, we appointed Justice (retd) Sudhanshu Dhulia, as chairperson of the search-cum-selection committee for both universities," the bench said.
Justice Dhulia demitted office as Supreme Court judge on August 9.
It authorised Justice Dhulia to constitute a separate or joint committee for the two universities, which would have five members including two members recommended by Kerala Governor, who is the ex-officio chancellor for both the universities and two members recommended by the state government.
The bench relied on orders passed by another apex court bench which appointed former chief Justice of India U U Lalit as the head of search-cum-selection panel to resolve a similar dispute over appointment of vice-chancellors in different universities of West Bengal.
The top court said Justice Dhulia would constitute the committee preferably within two weeks with the education department of the Kerala government issuing an advertisement inviting names for post of vice-chancellors from the public in four weeks.
The bench said the names of prospective candidates should be scrutinised by the education department and placed before the search-cum-selection committee, which would prepare a panel of three names for each university.
On July 30, the top court asked both the Kerala government represented by senior advocate Jaideep Gupta and Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for Governor, to "workout some mechanism in harmony" to resolve the dispute for the appointment of the vice-chancellors in both the universities
The matter was stated to have a bearing on the education of the students of the country.
"Both the universities are of high repute. Why should the students suffer in this type of litigation?" the bench asked earlier.
Governor and the state government were then directed to undertake the necessary exercise for the appointment of regular vice-chancellor in both the universities at the earliest.
The top court clarified it was open for the chancellor to issue two fresh notifications for the purpose of continuing with the present vice-chancellors in accordance with Section 13(7) and Section 11 (10) respectively of the two enactments for the appointment of 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".