The Supreme Court was informed on Thursday that the prolonged standoff between the Kerala Governor and the State government over the appointment of vice-chancellors to two universities has been resolved after a meeting between the Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
A Bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan was told that regular vice-chancellors have now been appointed to APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology. The appointments were made from panels recommended by a court-appointed committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia.
Attorney General for India, R Venkataramani, appearing for the Governor, and senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, representing the Kerala government, jointly apprised the Court of the development. The Attorney General said the deadlock ended after the Governor personally reached out to the Chief Minister.
“I have been talking with the Governor. When this deadlock was going on, the Governor himself called the Chief Minister, and they had a meeting. And that is how it got resolved finally,” AG Venkataramani told the Bench.
Justice Pardiwala welcomed the development and expressed hope that such engagement between constitutional authorities would continue. “I hope in the future they keep talking like this and arrive at an understanding in the larger interest of the country,” he remarked.
Recording the outcome in a detailed order, the Court appreciated the efforts taken by both sides to bring the dispute to an end and acknowledged the contribution of the committee headed by Justice Dhulia.
“Today, we are happy to record that both the Chancellor and the Government have in one voice reported that the appointments to the post of VCs in the two universities have been made from the list of panel candidates,” the Bench noted. It added that the Court placed on record its gratitude for the “good office” rendered by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia in facilitating a resolution.
The Court observed that its intervention was driven by concern that the universities had remained without a permanent Vice-chancellor for an extended period. “Our endeavour was to ensure that the institutions have a permanent head, which alone would ensure that the interests of all stakeholders are safeguarded,” the order said.
Reflecting on the broader implications, the Bench remarked that the case illustrated the value of timely judicial intervention. “Two prominent universities in Kerala, dealing with cutting-edge subjects, were rudderless for a long time only because a consensus was eluding the Government and the Governor,” it observed.
The Bench said their primary concern throughout had been for students, parents, and teaching and non-teaching staff who were “caught in the crossfire” of the institutional impasse.
Noting that the issuance of appointment orders had effectively closed the chapter, the Court said the matter had now been brought to a congenial conclusion. It also recorded appreciation for AG Venkataramani, senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, and the teams assisting them.
The Bench clarified that the broader legal issues raised in the petitions remain open and will be examined separately at a later stage.
Before the hearing concluded, senior advocate Gupta told the Court that the consensus would not have been possible without the Court’s intervention.