Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, in his capacity as Chancellor of Universities in the state, asked former vice-chancellors of universities to return the money they spent from the university fund for their legal fight against his order declaring their appointment ab initio void.

The vice-chancellors of various universities in the state spent Rs 1.13 crore to fight cases against the governor for revoking their appointments using university funds in the Supreme Court and the High Court.

Advertisement

In the notice issued to the universities on July 9, the Raj Bhavan asked the universities to recover the money illegally spent by the VCs for their interest.

In his directive to universities, Governor Khan stated that the vice-chancellors’ decision to allocate funds for legal expenses in personal cases was “not justifiable” and constituted a “misuse of university funds.”

He argued that in these cases, university officers were attempting to “safeguard or promote their interests.”

The governor instructed the universities to ensure that “no steps shall be taken to cover the legal expenses of university officers for proceedings against the Chancellor or the university.”

“If any such payments have already been made the amount shall be recovered forthwith from the concerned officer on whose behalf the payment was made,” he told the universities.