'Let Justice Dhulia's Report Come' : Supreme Court On Kerala Governor's Plea To Remove CM From Committee To Select University VCs

Attorney General for India today requested the Supreme Court to hear an application moved by the Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar seeking the removal of the Kerala Chief Minister from the Committee constituted by the Court for the appointment of regular Vice Chancellors for the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the University of Digital Sciences Innovation and Technology.

The Court however said that it would prefer to await the report of Justice (Retired) Sudhanshu Dhulia, the head of the Committee. On Auugst 18, the Court had constituted the Committee, in view of the stalemate between the Chancellor and the Kerala Government over the appointment of regular VCs. In the order, the Court said that the VCs should be shortlisted in the order of preference recommended by the Chief Minister.

Mentioning the application seeking the modification of the order, AG Venkataramani stated that a subsequent order passed by another coordinate bench restores the Governor as the appointing authority to appoint the Vice Chancellors.  

Before a bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan, AG R Venkataramani submitted: "I have a very small request. These applications not to be seen as obstructing any process of Justice Dhulia in this matter. I want to bring to your notice a subsequent order passed by Justice Surya Kant in this matter in the West Bengal matter. I though it was important to place it on record, and whichever way your Lordships find it important to look into this matter because there is a subsequent modification in which the authority of the Chancellor is restored inter alia as the appointing authority and if we don't look it in this point of time, Justice Dhulia's recommendation come, there could be some issues. I don't want to get involved in these issues, but I wish these issues get resolved."

As per AG, the subsequent orders passed by Justice Kant modified its earlier order, which had said that the Chief Minister is the appointing authority and that he will have the final say in the appointments of the Vice-Chancellors.

It should be noted that the AG was referring to an order passed in the West Bengal Governor matter, in which the Court appointed former Chief Justice of India UU Lalit to resolve the dispute regarding the appointment of Vice Chancellors. Recently, it modified its Para 18 and 21 of the order to the effect that Justice Lalit and his companion members of the committee need not adhere to the order of preference given by the CM of the state.

However, Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, for the Kerala State Government, opposed it. 

AG requested that the application be listed before Justice Dhulia makes any recommendation.  

However, the bench responded that it did like to wait for the report of Justice Dhulia. Justice Pardiwala said, "Should we not wait for the report of Justice Dhulia?"

AG responded that we should wait but then questioned how the appointments will ultimately take place when there is no clarity as to who is the appointing authority. "How will the ultimately process of appointment will happen? Because whether if Chief Minister will have the final say, or both have proper consultation or the Chancellor will be the appointing authority. These are matters of some concern," AG submitted.

But the bench said it will wait for the report. "Let the report come. We will work out the modalities. We will balance...Let the report be placed, the day it comes, we will look into the report and the modified order."