Improper to challenge Chancellor’s order, former CJ tells Calicut University V-C

Pius C. Kuriakose, former Chief Justice, High Court of Sikkim, and a former Kerala Lok Ayukta, has advised the University of Calicut against challenging the Chancellor’s order to reinstate an engineer who was demoted by the Syndicate for allegedly incurring losses to the institution.

Muhammed Sajid, instrumentation engineer attached to the university, was demoted by the Syndicate in 2022 as a junior engineer. He was also asked to cough up ₹27.42 lakh to recover the alleged losses incurred during installation of a local area network system. Mr. Sajid recently got an order from Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who is also the Chancellor and head of the appellate authority, to reinstate him. However, the Syndicate decided to challenge it in the High Court, based on the legal opinion of its standing counsel. When P. Raveendran took charge as Vice-Chancellor last month, he sought the advise of Mr. Kuriakose about the legality of such a move.

Mr. Kuriakose, in his reply to Mr. Raveendran, pointed out that any such challenge would be illegal and improper as the Syndicate was subordinate to the Chancellor as per the provisions of the Calicut University Act and the relevant statutes. Also, when Mr. Sajid earlier challenged the university’s disciplinary action against him in the High Court, the latter had held that he had an effective statutory remedy by way of an appeal before the Chancellor. When the Chancellor, allowing the appeal, passes an order reversing the order of the Syndicate, if the Syndicate or the university were to challenge that order, it would amount to an anomalous or ridiculous situation comparable to a district court challenging the High Court’s order reversing the district court’s judgment, decree or order before the Supreme Court, Mr. Kuriakose said. The Syndicate, which met on August 6, decided to put off the discussion on the legal advice to later date.

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