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The Kerala High Court on Thursday extended till 5 p.m. on November 7 the time granted for the Vice Chancellors of eight universities in the State to reply to the show cause notice issued to them by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan asking why their appointment should not be declared void ab Initio in view of a recent Supreme Court judgment regarding the appointment of the VC of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University.
Justice Devan Ramachandran made it clear that the VCs would be at liberty to seek a personal hearing in their reply or in a supplementary petition.
The directives were issued when the petitions filed by the VCs challenging the show-cause notice issued by the Governor in his capacity as Chancellor of the universities came up for hearing.
Jaju Babu , counsel for the Chancellor, submitted that as per the show-cause notice, the Chancellor had fixed November 3 and 4 as deadlines for providing an explanation to the notice and the VCs had been given time for a personal hearing on November 7.
Counsel for the petitioners contended that the show-cause notice was issued on the basis of his earlier letter asking them to resign from the posts in view of the Supreme Court Judgment. Since the High Court had quashed the communication, the Chancellor could not have issued the notice relying on the letter. The Chancellor had said in the notice that he had issued the show-cause notice because they had failed to respond to his letter.
If the Chancellor realised that he had made a mistake while making the appointment, he had no power to correct the mistake on his own. Such an action could be challenged by somebody before the High Court through a quo warranto writ petition.
The submission was made when the court asked whether the Chancellor could correct a mistake he had committed or whether he should perpetuate the mistake.
Counsel for the petitioners also submitted that the Chancellor was only a statutory officer and he could act only within the parametres drawn by the statutes. He was not legally competent to take a decision on whether the appointment of the VCs was void or not. The show-cause notice had been issued because of the misconception of the law laid down by the Supreme Court.
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