Kerala Governor blames CM Vijayan for pressuring him to reappoint Kannur VC

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Thursday accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of pressuring him to reappoint Gopinath Ravindran as the vice chancellor (VC) of Kannur University.

Khan, speaking to reporters here, said that state Higher Education Minister R Bindu was not to be blamed as the CM used her for seeking reappointment of Ravindran.

The Governor's response comes after the Supreme Court quashed the Kerala government's decision to re-appoint Ravindran as the VC of Kannur University.

A division bench of the Kerala High Court had on February 23 last year dismissed an appeal against a single-judge order upholding the re-appointment of Ravindran as the VC of the university, saying it was done in accordance with the law and that he was not "an usurper to the post".

The impugned judgement and the order passed by the high court dated February 23, 2022 is hereby set aside and as a consequence, the notification dated November 23, 2021 reappointing the respondent number 4 (Ravindran) as the vice chancellor of the Kannur University is hereby set aside, the top court said in its judgement.