Kochi: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan continued to lambast Higher Education Minister R Bindu for sending him a letter urging for the reappointment of Kannur varsity vice-chancellor.
After his return from New Delhi on Friday, Khan told mediapersons here that the minister had no right to give a letter of recommendation to him over the reappointment of the VC. He said he was not going to respond to the comments made by the higher education minister.
The governor said there was no change in his stand that if wanted, the state government could take back the responsibility of chancellorship of universities from the governor.
Khan asserted that only the selection committee had the sole right to take a call on the appointment of the VCs. This committee should be independent. The committee should not even heed to the directives of the chancellor. But here, the minister had sent a letter asking the chancellor to appoint a particular person.
He clarified that he had signed the file reappointing Dr Gopinath Ravindran as VC to avoid a showdown with the government.
Khan reminded that the chancellorship was given to the governor to protect the autonomy of universities. "It is not a responsibility given to the governor by the Constitution. It's a power given by the state government and the Assembly. So, if the government wants, it can turn universities into its departments. Why was the chancellorship given to me? I signed the order of the reappointment of the Kannur University VC without full consent. In order to avoid committing such mistakes in future, I decided to quit the post of the chancellor," he added.
He took strong exception to political interventions in the functioning of the universities. Khan disclosed that he did not read the notice issued by the court on the VC reappointment case.
"I will not comment more on the case since it was under the consideration of the court," he added.
