On Friday, the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala claimed that Governor Arif Mohammed Khan had suffered a ‘blow’ as a result of the Kerala High Court’s decision to appoint Priya Varghese, the wife of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s private secretary, to Kannur University. Khan suffered a setback as a result of the decision, according to CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan, given his stance against her nomination.
‘It is a blow to the Governor. Look at all he said. It is a blow for you (media) too. You too were very vocal on that issue,’ Govindan said. Guv Khan had postponed her appointment last year and claimed that Kannur University’s decision to do so was ‘political’ in his capacity as Chancellor of the state’s universities.
‘The process of the appointment… appears to be a case of favouritism and nepotism. A person who is not qualified to be appointed as an assistant professor prima facie is being appointed because she is the spouse of the secretary to the chief minister. This is political. There is absolutely no doubt,’ he had said.
The High Court ruled on Thursday that Varghese should be given due consideration for the position of Malayalam Associate Professor in the university because she has the necessary expertise.
The decision was reached in response to Varghese’s appeal of a single-judge judgement from November 2017 that said she lacked the necessary amount of real teaching experience required by the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations of 2018 for the position.
Varghese expressed gratitude for the decision and claimed that she had been targeted severely ever since the problem first surfaced and up until the ruling was handed out. ‘I would term it as a hunt. There was a lot of sadness in my life as a result. I am now happy with the verdict. I have got justice,’ she told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
Gopinath Ravindran, the vice chancellor of Kannur University, had stated the varsity would make a decision in accordance with the guidelines set forth in the ruling when the verdict was announced. ‘I have not read the judgement. Once I go through it, a decision will be taken accordingly,’ he had told reporters in Kannur.
Varghese’s planned appointment to the position in question last year had resulted in a significant political controversy since, despite having the lowest research score, she had the highest interview score and was proclaimed the winner of the selection process.
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