The ball is back in Raj Bhavan's court as the deadline granted by the High Court of Kerala to vice-chancellors of 10 universities to reply to show-cause notices served by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has passed.
All 10 vice-chancellors responded to the show cause before the 5 pm deadline set on Monday. Kannur VC Dr Gopinath Ravindran was the last to reply.
Three VCs had responded to the show cause by Thursday. Dr VP Mahadevan, who was the VC of Kerala University had replied by Wednesday while Dr Sabu Thomas of MG University, Dr K Riji John of KUFOS explained their positions the next day.
The vice-chancellors had been granted a relief on October 24 when the court overruled Governor Khan's order issued in his capacity as Chancellor of universities as per which the administrative heads of 11 state universities were told that they cease to be VCs.
The VCs had moved the High Court and earned an extension to respond to the Chancellor's show cause. The VC of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University did not respond as earlier this week, the Chancellor had assigned VC powers to Dr Ciza Thomas.
The Raj Bhavan had claimed that the 11 VCs who were asked to step down had been appointed not in accordance with the UGC norms.
It is understood that most of the VCs have asked for a personal hearing. The Governor had earlier said that if any VC wanted to have a personal hearing they had to say so before the deadline of October 7.
The Governor is likely to pass a verdict after the hearings are completed.
