Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan referred to President Droupadi Murmu seven of the eight bills pending assent for up to three years, but cleared the remaining one, a day before the Supreme Court takes up the state government’s writ petition against the prolonged status quo.
At an earlier hearing, the apex court had directed Khan to read its ruling on a similar petition filed by the Punjab government against that state’s governor. The court said that in the event of withholding assent to a bill sent by the state legislature, the governor was required to promptly send it back with relevant observations instead of sitting on it inordinately. The bench had also issued notice to the principal secretary to the governor.
The seven bills referred by governor for the President to consider include the Kerala Lok Ayukta (Amendment Bill), which purportedly seeks to dilute the power of the Lok Ayukta. Then there is the University Laws Amendment Bill 2022, meant to vest the government with the authority to pick candidates of its choice to replace the governor as the automatic chancellor of all state universities. Another bill pertains to amending the University Act to give the state government the authority to expand the search committee for vice-chancellors. The governor was also holding on to the Kerala Cooperative Societies Amendment Bill.
Picks new VC
The governor, meanwhile, appointed Prof S Bijoy Nandan as the vice chancellor of Kannur University, following the Supreme Court’s annulment of the reappointment of Gopinath Ravindran to the key position.
Nandan currently serves as a professor in the department of marine biology, microbiology & biochemistry at Cochin University of Science and Technology. The governor, serving as the chancellor of the university, made the decision to appoint Nandan as vice-chancellor, exercising the powers conferred by the provisions of the Kannur University Act, 2018.
The order directed Nandan, who is also the dean of the faculty of marine sciences at the School of Marine Sciences, CUSAT, to exercise the powers and perform the duties of the vice-chancellor of Kannur University with immediate effect. This is in addition to his regular duties until further orders.