Malappuram: Governor Arif Mohammed Khan canceled the Senate elections of Calicut University. The registrar had rejected the nomination of two Professors nominated by the Governor, following which, the Governor canceled the Senate elections.
The Registrar, who is also the Returning Officer had rejected the nomination of Dr. P Ravindran and Dr.TM Vasudevan nominated by the Governor. The Registrar declined the nomination of Dr P Ravindran and TM Vasudevan, citing Section 17 of the Calicut University Act, 1975. According to Section 17, only the ones who had contested and won can be candidates for ‘university teacher’ posts.
Dr. TM Vasudevan was nominated by the Governor to the Senate as the Head of the Department and Dr. P Ravindran as a representative of the research institute. As per university rules, senate members can contest elections. The Raj Bhavan also clarified that both of them submitted their nomination papers on the basis of this.
The complaint of the Professors was that their nominations were rejected so that the CPI(M) candidate could win unopposed. Both of them submitted a complaint to the Governor pointing out that this was a deliberate move and that the registrar had rejected the nominations against the university rules.
It was pointed out in the complaint to the Governor that the Returning Officer and the Vice-Chancellor refused to give the reason for rejection of the nomination in writing. Based on the complaint, the Governor directed the VC to suspend the election process for the time being and give an explanation on the matter.
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