Bijoy Nandan to take charge as VC of Kannur University

The Raj Bhavan on Friday announced Professor Bijoy Nandan to take charge as the Vice Chancellor of Kannaur University in Kerala, news agency ANI reported. 

The decision comes a day after the Supreme Court quashed the reappointment of Gopinath Ravindran as the VC kicked off a political storm in the state. 

After the judgement by the top court, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Thursday accused the state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of pressuring him to reappoint Gopinath Ravindran as the vice-chancellor. 

A bench, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, found a fault in the order of the Chancellor and Governor Arif in reappointing Ravindran to the post. The top court then set aside the judgements of the single and division bench of the state High court.

"The ...facts make it abundantly clear that there was no independent application of mind or satisfaction or judgment on the part of the Chancellor and the respondent No. 4 (Ravindran) came to be reappointed only at the behest of the State Government,” the bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said in its 72-page judgement.

“The Chancellor was required to discharge his statutory duties in accordance with law and guided by the dictates of his own judgment and not at the behest of anybody else. Law does not recognise any such extra constitutional interference in the exercise of statutory discretion. Any such interference amounts to dictation from political superior and has been condemned by courts on more than one occasion,” said Justice Pardiwala, writing the judgement for the bench.