NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has on Friday quashed Kerala's left front government's decision to appoint Rajasree M S as the Vice Chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram after declaring it as "illegal" and "void ab initio".
A bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar held that the search committee, which recommended her name, was "not duly constituted" and that the appointment flouted the norms of the University Grants Commission.
The court allowed an appeal by Sreejith PS, former Dean of the Engineering Faculty of Cochin University of Science and Technology against rejection of his petition by the Kerala High Court.
"In the present case, admittedly the only name of respondent No 1 was recommended to the Chancellor. As per the UGC Regulations also, the Visitor/Chancellor shall appoint the Vice Chancellor out of the panel of names recommended by the Search Committee. Therefore, when only one name was recommended and the panel of names was not recommended, the Chancellor had no option to consider the names of the other candidates. Therefore, the appointment of the respondent No 1 can be said to be dehors and/or contrary to the provisions of the UGC Regulations as well as even to the University Act, 2015," the bench said.
The court, relying upon the previous decisions, said any appointment as a Vice Chancellor made on the recommendation of the Search Committee, which is constituted contrary to the provisions of the UGC Regulations, shall be void ab initio.
"If there is any conflict between the State legislation and the Union legislation, the Union law shall prevail even as per Article 254 of the Constitution of India to the extent the provision of the State legislation is repugnant. Therefore, the submission on behalf of the State that unless the UGC Regulations are specifically adopted by the State, the UGC Regulations shall not be applicable and the State legislation shall prevail unless UGC Regulations are specifically adopted by the State cannot be accepted," the bench added.
The top court also pointed out the UGC Regulations were adopted by the state government in October 2010.
"Merely because the subsequent amendment has not been specifically adopted/accepted by the State cannot be a ground by the State to contend that the amendment to the Regulations shall not be binding on the State/State's Universities...the appointment of the Vice Chancellor shall be al ways as per the relevant provisions of the UGC Regulations amended from time to time," the bench added.
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