Kerala Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal against a single judge upholding the reappointment of Gopinath Ravindran as vice chancellor of Kannur University.
A bench of Chief Justice S. Manikumar and Judge Shaji P Chaly rejected the plea of every member of the Senate and Academic Council of the varsity against the solitary judge’s order of Dec. 15 last year.
Senior advocate V Manu, who appeared before the state in the case, confirmed the appeal’s rejection.
The verdict is not yet known.
The December 15, 2021 injunction arose on the plea of the same petitioners to quash a November 23, 2021 notice reappointing Ravindran as the VC.
While dismissing the plea, the single judge had said there was no violation of any legal provision in Ravindran’s reappointment as VC.
In the decision of 15 December 2021, the court had said that reappointment is different from appointment and that the procedure does not have to be followed when someone is reappointed.
The petitioners had argued before the single judge that a person can only hold the office of VC until the age of 60 and Ravindran, born on 19 December 1960, was of age at the time of his second appointment.
The petitioners further argued that after the expiry of a VC’s four-year term, there was no renewal clause and that appointment was the only option.
The lone judge had dismissed the allegations.
