Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 29 (PTI) Kerala General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Saturday said that Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar was behaving more “like a politician and an RSS activist” than the constitutional head of the state, in his actions regarding the functioning of universities.
Sivankutty said that the Supreme Court had also made strong remarks against Arlekar, in his capacity as chancellor of state universities, over his actions concerning the appointment of vice chancellors at APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology.
The minister claimed that the apex court had repeatedly observed that the governor, as chancellor, was exercising powers he did not possess.
Sivankutty added that Arlekar’s stance was affecting the efficient functioning of universities in the state.
“Governors have never acted like this in the past. People are now losing faith in the governor,” he said.
The minister further claimed that the CM (Pinarayi Vijayan) had submitted a list of names for the appointment of vice chancellors, but the governor did not consider them.
“The governor filed a case against the chief minister using funds provided by the state government for the functioning of Raj Bhavan. Such actions cannot be justified. The Governor is behaving more and more like a politician and an RSS activist,” he contended.
Taking serious exception to Arlekar allegedly ignoring the Sudhanshu Dhulia committee report on the appointment of vice chancellors of two universities, the Supreme Court on Friday said it is “not just an ordinary piece of paper” and that the governor is bound to take a decision on it.
The apex court asked the Kerala Governor to take a call on the report within a week and apprise the court of his decision by December 5.
The order came after senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the Kerala government, complained that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had forwarded his recommendations for the appointment of the two vice chancellors, based on the Justice Dhulia panel report, to the governor-cum-chancellor, but no decision had been taken so far.
On September 2, the Kerala Governor approached the Supreme Court seeking to exclude Vijayan from the selection process of the vice chancellors, arguing that neither university envisioned any role for the chief minister in the appointments.
On August 18, to resolve the impasse between the Kerala governor and the state government over vice-chancellor appointments, the Supreme Court appointed former apex court judge Sudhanshu Dhulia to head a panel for shortlisting names. PTI HMP SSK HMP SSK ROH
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