Bharat Mata Portrait Row: Kerala High Court Refuses To Interfere With KU Registrar's Suspension, Asks Syndicate To Decide

The Kerala High Court today refused to interfere with the suspension of Kerala University Registrar Prof. Dr. K S Anilkumar, in connection with the Bharat Mata portrait row.

Justice T R Ravi instead directed the Vice Chancellor to convene a meeting of the varsity Syndicate, which will decide the issue.

“Challenge against suspension fails and the prayers regarding the same are rejected. Writ petition is disposed of directing second respondent to convene meeting of syndicate. Suspension to be continued until the syndicate takes a call," the bench said.

The Registrar was suspended by the Vice Chancellor back in July for cancelling a seminar to be attended by the Governor, amid clashes between different Students' Unions over display of 'Bharat Mata' portrait with a saffron flag— purportedly giving the impression of a Hindu goddess.

The Vice Chancellor had held the Registrar responsible for alleged procedural irregularities and mismanagement, leading to unrest on campus.

The Registrar challenged his continued suspension despite a formal revocation of the same by the University Syndicate. He also sought to quash several orders issued by the Vice Chancellor that prevented him from rejoining duty.

The Court observed that the understanding of the Vice Chancellor regarding the scope of placing the issue regarding suspension before the Syndicate was not correct. 

"It was open for the Syndicate to have decided not to continue with the suspension which had been ordered by the Vice Chancellor and the University could have placed such a decision before the Court, which was considering the issue of correctness of suspension and there was not even a necessity to file a counter affidavit." the court observed. 

"The Vice Chancellor could have exercised his power to have additional agenda and continued with the meeting", it added.

The Court examined whether the second meeting of the Syndicate were the suspension of the Registrar was revoked was illegal.

Citing a recent judgment in Dr Vinodkumar Jacob v Vice Chancellor and Anr [2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 538], the court held that a second meeting convened by Syndicate members after the VC dissolved the official meeting could not be treated as valid under the statutes. Court observed that parallel meeting can lead to "several mischievous situations."

The writ petition was disposed of whereby the Vice Chancellor was directed to convene a properly constituted Syndicate meeting through the Registrar-in-Charge to decide whether the suspension of the should continue. The decision of the Syndicate, the court held, would be binding on the Vice Chancellor, subject to the powers of the Chancellor.

Case Title - Prof. Dr. K S Anilkumar v The University of Kerala and Ors.

Case No - WP(C) 28246/ 2025

Citation - 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 555

Counsel for Petitioner - Elvin Peter P J (Sr.), K R Ganesh, Adarsh Babu C S, Ahsana E, Ashik J Varghese

Counsel for Respondent - Thomas Abraham (SC- Kerala University), M R Sabu, Aparna Rajan, Sreedhar Ravindran, Fathima Parveen PS, P Anirudhan, Girija K Gopal, K N Vigy, Soorya Mariya Kurian, T C Krishna.

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