Supreme Court Forms Search Committee Headed By Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia for Kerala University Vice-Chancellor Appointments

Given the stalemate between the Kerala Government and the Kerala Governor regarding the appointment of University Vice Chancellors, the Supreme Court on Wednesday (August 18) appointed Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia as the Chairperson of the Search-cum-Selection Committee to shortlist names of regular Vice-Chancellor appointments in two State Universities - APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and University of Digital Sciences Innovation and Technology.

"We firmly believe that this impasse, which has been created, should be taken care of at earliest. In such circumstances, we appointed Hon'ble Sudhanshu Dhulia, former judge of this Court, as chairperson of the Search-cum-Selection University for both universities. 

The learned Chairperson is hereby authorized to constitute separate or joint Search-cum-Selection Committees for the two Universities.

The learned Chairperson shall preside over both the Search-cum-Selection Committees and thus composition of each such Committee shall be filled, preferably by two members from the list provided by the Chancellor and two from the list provided by the State. However, ultimately, we leave it to the better discretion of the learned Chairperson. The Search-cum-Selection Committee shall prepare a panel of at least 3 names (alphabetically and not in order of merit) for the two Universities.  The learned Chairperson is requested to constitute a Search- cum-Selection Committee for the two Universities as early as possible and within two weeks from today," ordered a bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan.

The Chairperson must be paid an honorarium of Rs.3,00,000/- (Rupees Three Lakh only) for every day of proceedings of the Search-cum-Selection Committee, until the entire process is complete.

Chancellor must appoint VCs in the same order of preference recommended by the CM

The Court further ordered :

"The recommendations made by the Search-cum-Selection Committee, duly endorsed by the learned Chairperson, shall be put up before the Chief Minister (and not the Minister-in-charge of a Department) for necessary consideration. In case the Chief Minister, State of Kerala has reasons to believe that any shortlisted person is unsuitable for appointment as Vice- Chancellor, the remarks to this effect along with the supporting material and the original record of the recommendation made by the Search-cum-Selection Committee, shall be put up before the learned Chancellor within two weeks. The Chief Minister shall be entitled to recommend the shortlisted names in order of preference for appointment as Vice-Chancellors."

"The learned Chancellor upon receipt of record from the Chief Minister of the State, shall appoint the Vice-Chancellors out of the empanelled names, in the same order of preference as recommended by the Chief Minister of the State. In case the learned Chancellor has any reservation against the empanelled names and/or the remarks made by the Chief Minister of the State against any shortlisted candidate, the learned Chancellor shall be entitled to put up his own opinion on file, duly supported with reasons and relevant material," the Court added.

The Chancellor must accord his approval (save and except when there is a difference of opinion) within two weeks of receipt of file from the Chief Minister of the State.

In case(s) where the Chief Minister of the State has objected to the inclusion of any name in the panel and such objection is not acceptable to the Chancellor or where the Chancellor has an objection against empanelment of any particular name for which he has assigned his own reasons, all such files shall be put up before the Court. The Court will decide the issue.

On earlier occasion, a bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan had asked the Attorney General for India, R Venkataramani, and Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta (for the State) to give four names for inclusion in the 5-member committee. One member will be nominated by the University Grants Commission.

The Court was dealing with a Special Leave Petition filed by the Kerala Governor, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, challenging the Kerala High Court's judgment, which quashed the Chancellor's appointment of temporary Vice Chancellor of the University without the State Government's recommendation.

On July 30, the Court had urged the Chancellor and the Government to resolve the issue amicably to ensure the appointments of regular VCs. The Court had also clarified that until regular VC appointments are completed, it would be open for the Kerala Governor to re-appoint the present temporary VCs.

Later, the Chancellor re-appointed Ciza Thomas & K Sivaprasad as interim VCs of Digital & Technological Universities, which the State Government challenged by filing an application.

Background