On Tuesday, The Kerala Legislative Assembly passed the University Laws Bill (Amendment), 2022, to replace the Governor from the post of Chancellor in the state’s universities.

The bill was passed after hours-long discussions during which the Congress-led UDF was not opposed to removing the Governor as Chancellor, but suggested that Chancellor should be selected from amongst retired Supreme Court judges and former Kerala High Court Chief Justices.

The opposition said there need not be different Chancellors for each university and that the selection panel should comprise the Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and the Kerala High Court Chief Justice.

Kerala Law Minister P Rajeev said that a judge cannot be a part of the selection panel and the Speaker would be a better option. The minister also said being retired judges cannot be the sole option for being appointed at the helm of universities.

In the wake of the stand taken by the government, the opposition said it was boycotting the House proceedings as it feared that the state government was attempting to turn universities into Communist or Marxist centres by appointing them to posts of their choice.

On December 7, the Law Minister introduced an amendment in the Assembly where a three-member committee could decide the Chancellor including the state’s Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Speaker.

The amendment noted, “the government shall appoint an academician of high repute or a person of eminence in any of the field of science including agriculture and veterinary science, technology, medicine, social science, humanities, literature, art, culture, law or public administration as the chancellor of the university.”

“ Chancellor is appointed for a period of five years and the person appointed as chancellor shall be eligible for reappointment of one or more terms. The chancellor may resign his office by an intimation in writing to the government,” it added.

The bill was sent for the consideration of the subject committee.