THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: C N Vijayakumari, Dean of Oriental Studies and Head of the Department of Sanskrit in Kerala University, who is facing charges of showing caste bias towards a researcher from the Scheduled Caste category, has been nominated by President Droupadi Murmu as a member of the Court of Pondicherry University. The court is the apex body of the central university.

Vijayakumari is the first academic from the University of Kerala to be nominated by the President to the post.

Meanwhile, fresh protests erupted in Kerala University against Vijayakumari when the senior academic returned to the varsity’s Kariavattom campus amid the controversy.

SFI workers gheraoed Vijayakumari for an hour as part of the protest.

They also shouted slogans against Vice Chancellor Dr Mohanan Kunnumal, to whom Vijayakumari submitted a complaint that pointed out “serious academic defects” in the Sanskrit thesis of researcher Vipin Vijayan.

However, the researcher alleged that Viayakumari had objected to awarding a PhD degree to him owing to “caste bias”. Vijayakumari has been charged under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act.