Gopinath Ravindran files affidavit in Supreme Kerala High Court

KOZHIKODE: Kannur University vice-chancellor Gopinath Ravindran has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in response to the appeal filed by varsity senate member Premachandran Keezhoth and others challenging the Kerala High Court order which had rejected their plea to quash Ravindran's reappointment on the ground that a person can be appointed as the VC only till the age of 60 and Ravindran had passed that age limit when he was reappointed on November 2021.
In October 2022, a division bench of the high court had upheld the single bench's order dismissing Keezhoth's plea saying the age limit prescribed under Section 10(9) of the Kannur University Act, will not come into play in the matter of reappointment of the vice-chancellor.
In the statement of objections filed before the Supreme Court, the vice-chancellor has said that primary contention of the petitioners was wrong. He cited the order of West Bengal High Court in 2022 which had clarified that re-appointment does not entail the same procedural formalities as appointment and there is a clear distinction in law between the two.«
"The Hon'ble High Court proceeded on the correct premise that Sec. 10(10) read with UGC Regulation, 2018 Clause 7.3 only prescribes for the initial appointment to the post of vice-chancellor, wherein at the time of initial appointment the answering respondent possessed all the necessary qualifications required to be appointed, even at the time of reappointment such eligibility conditions stood fulfilled, however, Clause 7.3 does not prescribe for a reappointment situation and thus would not be applicable to the answering respondent, since the re-appointment was not a fresh appointment by any stretch of imagination," the affidavit said.
While Section 10 (9) of Kannur University Act says that no person who is more than 60 years of age shall be appointed as vice-chancellor, Section 10(10) states that the vice-chancellor shall, hold office for a term of four years from the date on which he enters his office and shall be eligible for re-appointment.