Kerala VC Appointments: Governor Tells Supreme Court CM Sent ‘Incomplete Records’

The application, filed through AoR Venkita Subramoniam TR in the pending Special Leave Petitions challenging the Kerala High Court’s July 14, 2025 judgment, asserts that the Supreme Court’s August 18 direction; requiring the Chief Minister to transmit the entire set of documents relied upon by the Search-cum-Selection Committee, has not been followed.

According to the plea, the Justice Dhulia-led Committee completed interviews between October 8 and 11 and forwarded two panels: one containing five names and another containing four. The Chief Minister conveyed his preferences on October 14. However, the Governor states that the material accompanying the CM’s communication was “grossly insufficient.”

The application claims that several essential records were not furnished, including:
• the criteria adopted by the Committee,
• the list of all applicants,
• the qualifications and eligibility data of each candidate,
• the Committee’s evaluation process and deliberations,
• the documents the Committee relied on while shortlisting, and
• a complete record of the proceedings.

Instead, only the minutes of the Committee meetings and the final panels were shared. The Governor argues that without these fundamental documents, he cannot meaningfully assess the Committee’s work, record agreement or disagreement with the Chief Minister’s preferences, or comply with the Supreme Court’s mandate to take a reasoned decision.

The plea further notes that only two candidates appear in both panels, and neither figures among the Chief Minister’s top preferences, making scrutiny of the underlying materials “critical and unavoidable.”

The Governor has also reminded the Court that he had earlier sought modification of the August 18 order, particularly after the Supreme Court’s decision on August 1, 2025, in Sanat Kumar Ghosh, which removed the requirement that Vice Chancellor appointments be guided by the Chief Minister’s order of preference. The Court had indicated that this plea would be considered after Justice Dhulia submitted his report.

Seeking urgent intervention, the Governor has now requested a direction to Justice Dhulia to provide the complete set of documents used in the selection process, warning that the absence of those records would cause “irreparable loss and injury” and prevent faithful compliance with the Supreme Court’s own directions.

Earlier, today, when the matter was taken up for hearing the Supreme Court had strongly criticised the Kerala Governor for holding up action on the report submitted by Justice Dhulia regarding the appointments of Vice Chancellors.

Previously in September, the Attorney General of India had mentioned before the Court an application filed by Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar seeking the removal of the Kerala Chief Minister from the Committee constituted for appointing regular Vice Chancellors of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the University of Digital Sciences Innovation and Technology. 

Recently, the Kerala Governor had approached the Supreme Court seeking modification of its August 18 order on the process for appointing Vice Chancellors to two state universities. In his application, the Governor urged the Court to exclude the Chief Minister from the selection process, include a nominee of the University Grants Commission (UGC) in the search committee, and ensure that the Chancellor retains the discretion to choose from an alphabetical panel of shortlisted candidates.