VS' son ineligible for IHRD Director post; govt changing rule for him unlawful: AICTE
AICTE filed this statement before the High Court of Kerala in response to a writ petition by Prof Vinu Thomas, the Dean of Academics at APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and a faculty member at IHRD, challenging the decision to make Arunkumar the acting Director and tweaking the eligibility criteria.
AICTE filed this statement before the High Court of Kerala in response to a writ petition by Prof Vinu Thomas, the Dean of Academics at APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and a faculty member at IHRD, challenging the decision to make Arunkumar the acting Director and tweaking the eligibility criteria.
AICTE filed this statement before the High Court of Kerala in response to a writ petition by Prof Vinu Thomas, the Dean of Academics at APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and a faculty member at IHRD, challenging the decision to make Arunkumar the acting Director and tweaking the eligibility criteria.
Kochi: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has declared V A Arunkumar, son of former Chief Minister and veteran Marxist leader VS Achuthanandan, ineligible for the Director’s post at the Institute of Human Resource Development (IHRD), though he attended the interview on October 9.
AICTE, the country's technical education regulator, also said that the state government amending the eligibility criteria for the Director's post to help Arunkumar is against AICTE regulations and is unsustainable in law.
AICTE filed this statement before the High Court of Kerala in response to a writ petition by Prof Vinu Thomas, the Dean of Academics at APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and a faculty member at IHRD, challenging the decision to make Arunkumar the acting Director and tweaking the eligibility criteria.
The petition, filed in February, is coming up for hearing before the Bench of Justice Ziyad Rahman AA on October 23.
Onmanorama carried a two-part series, 'Flight of Favours', on October 10 and 11, delving into the out-of-the-way favours shown by successive LDF governments to advance Arunkumar's career at IHRD.
Part-I: The dubious reign of VS' son in government-funded IHRD
Part-II: Coirfed service as teaching experience? Even HC remark didn't break Arunkumar's IHRD stint
According to AICTE's reply citing the 2019 regulation, the candidates for the post of director/ principal of technical institutes should have i) PhD degree and first class or equivalent at either Bachelor's or Master's Level in relevant branch; ii) successfully guided at least two PhD students and eight research publications; and iii) Minimum 15 years of experience in teaching/ research/ industry, out of which at least 3 years shall be at the post equivalent to that of professor.
Arunkumar does not meet the last two criteria. "From the pleadings and records, it is evident that Arunkumar does not have any necessary qualification prescribed in AICTE regulations," the regulator said.
To ensure Arunkumar attended the interview for the post of IHRD Director and got the job, the state government amended the special rules of the institute and added an alternative criterion: That the candidate should have "seven years of experience in the cadre of Additional Director under IHRD service" — a requirement that only he met.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the state government can certainly set enhanced norms and standards but "it cannot dilute the standards prescribed by AICTE". The three-member bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde, and justices V Ramasubramanian and AS Bopanna gave the judgment on December 11, 2020, ironically, on a petition filed by APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, a state university.
In the case of the IHRD Director's post, the government did not dilute the qualification but effectively deleted the qualification for the post by allowing a candidate with seven years of experience as an Additional Director of IHRD to be selected as the Director.