Kerala HC stays the appointment of wife of CM's private secretary at Kannur University till month end

On August 22, the Kerala High Court stayed the appointment of the wife of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's private secretary KK Ragesh as an Associate Professor of Malayalam at Kannur University till August 31. And in this regard, it issued notices to all parties, as stated in a report by IANS.

Acting on a petition from the second-ranked candidate, the court also asked the University Grants Commission to be impleaded in the petition and notice to be served to the state government, the Governor, and the varsity Vice-Chancellor, as stated in a report by IANS. 

Although Kannur University cleared the appointment of Ragesh's wife Priya Varghese, in June, till now, the appointment letter has not been issued. Moreover, this incident was raked up by the media as an act of favouritism. Things worsened for her when an RTI (Right to Information) disclosed something else.

The RTI information that surfaced last week revealed that she got the maximum marks (32 out of 50) in the personal interview, while the second-ranked candidate Jacob Skariah scored 30. But her research score was a mere 156, while the second-ranked candidate secured 651. Yet she was ranked first based on the personal interview.

Disappointed, Skariah approached the court and expressed that he was sidelined. Considering this, after going through the procedures, the court stayed all further proceedings in the appointment of Varghese.

It was the Governor who made the first move by taking action against Kannur University Vice-Chancellor Gopinath Ravindran. But Ravindran told the media that he is not willing to make any comments on the court order.