Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar in a conversation with State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, December 1, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar conveyed to the Supreme Court on Thursday his preference for the appointments of Dr. Ciza Thomas and Dr. Priya Chandran as Vice Chancellors of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University and the Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology, respectively.
Governor Arlekar said he preferred both names for the respective posts, though Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had objected to Ms. Thomas.
The Governor said the Chief Minister’s objection to Ms. Thomas was based merely on news reports and not on records.
“On an independent assessment of the performance of Dr. Ciza Thomas as the Vice Chancellor of two universities during the past years for short stints, the Chancellor is fully satisfied and convinced of her performance of the duties entrusted to her with true dedication and honesty,” an affidavit highlighted.
The Governor, who is the Chancellor of the two State-run universities, said he had based his decision solely on the fact that both names were commonly recommended by the two separate search committees chaired by former Supreme Court judge, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia.
“The two search committees constituted for submitting the panel of candidates furnished two separate panels for the two universities. Only these two names found place in both the panels. Such an inclusion has to be considered as the acceptance of the exemplary merit of the two persons. So, going by merit assessed by the committees, they have to be selected, but the Chief Minister did not favour them,” the Governor’s side explained in a short affidavit.
The Governor said his decision-making process had been handicapped because he had not received any documents regarding the credentials of the candidates.
“Since no document relating to the credentials of the candidates have been received, the applicant [Governor-Chancellor] is not in a position to take any other decision than to prefer the two candidates recommended by the two committees,” the affidavit reasoned.
The case is scheduled to be taken up before a Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice J.B. Pardiwala on December 5.
The Supreme Court had intervened on August 18 to appoint Justice (retired) Sudhanshu Dhulia to head a search-cum-selection committee to recommend names for appointment as Vice Chancellors of the two universities. The court had ordered that the shortlisted names, endorsed by Justice Dhulia, be placed before the Chief Minister for his consideration. The August 18 order had entitled the Chief Minister to recommend to the Governor the shortlisted names in order of preference.
In September, the Governor’s office had returned to the top court seeking a modification of the August 18 order regarding the role of the Chief Minister in the appointment process. The Governor had argued that neither the University Grants Commission nor the State laws governing the two universities envisaged a role for the Chief Minister. The application had contended that the Chief Minister’s involvement would be tantamount to a person judging his own cause.
Published – December 04, 2025 09:49 pm IST
