Appointment of 700 members to Boards of Studies of Kannur University cancelled by Kerala HC

The appointment of almost 700 members to the Boards of Studies of 72 departments of Kannur University has been dismissed by the Kerala High Court. A division bench, led by Chief Justice S Manikumar, was hearing an appeal against a decision of a single judge of the court, who had cleared these appointments, which allegedly violated guidelines. The claim made by the petitioners was that the Governor of Kerala, Arif Mohammed Khan, who is also the Chancellor of the varsity, was kept in the dark about the appointments, thus violating the need for the concurrence of the Chancellor of the varsity for the appointments. 

A movement 'Save University Campaign' was launched to protest against these appointments. A petition had been filed in the High Court, which had at first been dismissed by the single judge bench. However, the appeal, which was heard by the division bench concluded that the concurrence of the Chancellor was not obtained. The petitioners had pointed out that the rules were tweaked by the Syndicate of the University and the role of the Chancellor in the appointment to the Board of Studies was not required. 

The movement had alleged that a majority of the appointments to the Boards of Studies were people affiliated with the CPI(M) party. Incidentally, Kannur University has been caught under a few litigations for a while, which included the re-appointment of the Vice-Chancellor just before he was to superannuate, but the court cleared it. Another case involved the controversial appointment of the Chief Minister's private secretary's wife as a faculty, despite her lack of experience when compared to other candidates.