Marking a complete turnaround of his stance, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan appointed Digital University of Kerala Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Saji Gopinath as APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) V-C in-charge on Friday.
The appointment was made in view of the incumbent Ciza Thomas’ retirement from service. Dr. Gopinath will assume workplace as KTU V-C on Saturday.
Notably, the volte-face comes practically 5 months after the Governor rebuffed the federal government’s preliminary suggestion to nominate Dr. Gopinath to the place after the Supreme Court annulled the appointment of Rajasree M.S. in October final.
Strife-ridden tenure
The rejection had set off a sequence of occasions that exacerbated the confrontation between the Governor and the federal government and paved the way in which for Dr. Thomas’ appointment as KTU V-C underneath controversial circumstances. Her strife-ridden tenure, which concluded on Friday, was marked by an intense energy recreation with the Syndicate that pushed the college into an administrative deadlock.
The current flip of occasions together with Mahatma Gandhi University V-C Sabu Thomas’ appointment as V-C in-charge of the Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University is seen by numerous quarters as a major step-down within the Governor’s battle with the federal government in mild of successive authorized setbacks. Eleven V-Cs had been issued show-cause notices after Raj Bhavan discovered their appointments to be in alleged violation of University Grants Commission (UGC) norms.
Charge memo issued
Meanwhile, the federal government issued a cost memo to Dr. Thomas after she failed to seem for a listening to referred to as by the Higher Education division on her retirement day.
The memo cited the alleged violation of Rule 48 of Kerala Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1960, by assuming the workplace of the KTU V-C with out acquiring the federal government’s permission, and numerous lapses that had been purportedly dedicated whereas she was posted as senior joint director on the Directorate of Technical Education. She has been supplied 15 days to furnish an evidence to the fees.
Dr. Thomas had been ordered to attend a listening to earlier than the extra secretary of the Higher Education division after the Kerala Administrative Tribunal rejected her plea to quash a show-cause discover that had been served on her. She conveyed her inconvenience to seem in-person in view of the formalities previous to retirement she needed to full at KTU and the Government Engineering College, Barton Hill, the place she was posted as principal.
