Two more VCs get show cause notices from Kerala Guv
Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 25: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, as Chancellor of Universities in the state, on Tuesday issued show cause notices to two more Vice Chancellors asking what legal right they have to hold the office as their appointment was allegedly in violation of UGC norms.
Khan issued show cause notices to the Vice Chancellors of Sreenarayanaguru Open University and Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology.
The show cause notices came in the wake of the Governor, last week, asking the VCs of nine other Kerala universities to quit their respective offices.
After the VCs did not send their resignations by 11.30 AM on Monday as sought by Khan, he had issued show cause notices to them seeking their response by November 3 on what legal right they have to continue in their respective offices following the Supreme Court order of October 21.
A similar notice has now been sent to Dr P M Mubarak Pasha, the VC of Sreenarayanaguru Open University, and Dr Saji Gopinath, VC of Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology, seeking their responses by November 4.
"Notice issued to VCs of Sreenarayanaguru Open University & Kerala Univ. of Digital Sciences, Innovation &Technology to show cause, by 5pm on/before 04.11.2022, their legal right to hold Office of VC & not to declare their appointment 'illegal & void ab initio':PRO, KeralaRajBhavan," the Raj Bhavan tweeted.
In the notice sent to Pasha, it is said that in view of the apex court judgement "it is prima facie found that your appointment as the VC of Sreenarayanaguru Open University is contrary to the UGC Regulations and as such is bad in law / illegal and void ab initio".
The top court on October 21 had quashed the appointment of the VC of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University saying that as per the University Grants Commission (UGC), the search committee constituted by the state should have recommended a panel of not less than three suitable people among eminent people in the field of engineering science to the chancellor but, instead it sent only one name.
Based on that order, Khan had called for resignations of VCs whose names were the only ones recommended for appointment and also those who were selected by a committee of which the Chief Secretary of the state was a member, terming both as a violation of UGC regulations.
In the case of Pasha, the show cause notice states that he was appointed on the basis of the recommendation by the state government and not by a search/selection committee as prescribed in the UGC regulations.
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Phase five LS polls: Rae Bareli, Amethi among 14 UP seats going to polls on Monday
Lucknow(PTI): Voting for the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, which will decide the fate of four Union ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, will be held on Monday.
Voting will also take place for the assembly bypoll to Lucknow East assembly constituency.
The seats going to polls in the fifth phase are Mohanlalganj (SC), Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jalaun (SC), Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Kaisarganj and Gonda.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
Rahul Gandhi is in the fray from Rae Bareli, which was represented by his mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi earlier.
Over 2.68 crore voters are eligible to exercise their polling rights and 144 candidates are in the fray.
The BJP gave tickets to 11 of its sitting Lok Sabha MPs in this phase, while it had fielded new candidates in Barabanki (SC) seat and Kaisarganj.
In the INDIA bloc, the Congress has fielded K L Sharma from Amethi, Tanuj Punia from Barabanki (SC) and Pradeep Jain 'Aditya' from Jhansi. The Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates are in the poll fray on the rest of the seats.
Defence minister Singh is eyeing a fourth term from Lucknow. He is pitted against sitting SP MLA Ravidas Mehrotra from Lucknow Central.
From the neighbouring constituency of Amethi, Irani is in the poll fray.
In Kaisarganj Lok Sabha seat, the contest is between BJP's Karan Bhushan Singh, son of former MP and ex-president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and SP's Bhagat Ram.
Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, which covers the temple town of Ayodhya, will see a contest between sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh, who is seeking a hat-trick, and Awadhesh Prasad, the SP MLA from Milkipur (SC) assembly constituency in Ayodhya district.
In Hamirpur, the poll contest is between BJP's Kunwar Pushpendra Singh Chandel, eyeing a third term, and SP's Ajendra Singh Lodhi.
In Gonda, BJP's Kirti Vardhan Singh, who is eyeing a fifth term, is facing a contest from SP's Shreya Verma.
The main electoral contest in Banda is between RK Singh Patel, who is seeking a third term, and Krishna Devi Shivshankar Patel of the SP.
Vinod Kumar Sonkar, who is eyeing a hat-trick of Lok Sabha wins, will be facing SP's Pushpendra Saroj, son of SP leader Indrajeet Saroj, for Kaushambi (SC) constituency.
Voting will also take place for the assembly bypoll to Lucknow East assembly constituency.
Bypoll in the Lucknow East assembly constituency was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA Ashutosh Tandon on November 9, 2023.
