Supreme Court appoints Justice Dhulia as Chairperson of search panel for V-Cs of two Kerala varsities

The Supreme Court on Monday (August 18, 2025) appointed former Supreme Court judge, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, as the Chairperson of two search-cum-selection committees to be constituted for the appointments of Vice-Chancellors (V-C), respectively, to two State universities in Thiruvananthapuram — the A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University, and the Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation, and Technology.

The appointment came after the Supreme Court stepped in to end the months-long impasse between the State and its Governor, the latter being the Chancellor of the two varsities, over the appointments of the two V-Cs.

“We firmly believe that this impasse created must be taken care of at the earliest. In such circumstances, we hereby appoint Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia as chairperson of the search-cum-selection committees for both universities,” the court recorded in an order.

A Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan gave Justice Dhulia, who retired only on August 9, discretion to either constitute separate or joint search-cum-selection committees, and choose the members from the names forwarded by the Kerala government and the Chancellor. The court suggested the Chairperson could take two names each from the lists of the State and the Governor, respectively.

Justice Dhulia would preside as Chairperson over the search and selection of both V-Cs.

The Education Department of the State would act as the nodal authority to issue advertisements and receive applications for the posts of the V-Cs. The application would be forwarded to Justice Dhulia, dossiers of suitable candidates would be prepared, and discussed in the committees. The committees must complete their task in a month.

Later in the day, Attorney-General R. Venkataramani, who appeared for the Governor, sought the court’s permission to approach in case there were any hiccups in the process in the future.

The previous week had witnessed Mr. Venkataramani informing the court that the Governor had suggested top academicians from the Indian Institutes of Technology be considered for the V-C posts. Mr. Venkataramani had said the University Grants Commission, which had to nominate one of the five members of the search committee, had already selected names.

“Our endeavour is to appoint regular V-Cs. Today, the entire problem is with the constitution of a search committee. We will help you out. We will constitute a search committee, which would give an opinion as to who are fit enough to be V-Cs. Then, you (Chancellor, Governor) would sit in consultation with the State government and select one for the digital university and another for the technology university,” Justice Pardiwala had addressed Mr. Venkataramani last week.

Mr. Venkataramani had earlier referred to how the Kerala High Court had quashed the Chancellor’s appointment of temporary V-Cs to the universities because the State government had not been consulted.

“This is not a power struggle. This is a federal issue. We have an underlying common culture in this country. But every State is very different. So, therefore, education is in the Concurrent List. The Chancellor is trying to ensure there is no whiff of Kerala in his appointments. Like this, the federal nature of the process would get diluted,” senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, who represented the State of Kerala along with advocate C.K. Sasi, had submitted.