KERALA cabinet has decided on November 9 to promulgate an ordinance to appoint eminent people with academic excellence to the post of chancellor of the universities. The government would draft a proposal in this regard and approach the governor to promulgate the ordinance. The proposed ordinance will allow for amending the university statutes to remove the governor from the post of chancellor of all 14 universities in the state.

“The ordinance is meant to amend the university rules pertaining to the post of chancellor of the universities in the state. The draft of the ordinance would remove the particular section from the university rules, which makes the governor the ex-officio chancellor of the 14 universities in Kerala,” said the official release.

The government has taken this decision, considering the recommendations of the Justice Punchhi commission which opined that it is not fair that a governor who has to deliver constitutional duties be appointed as the chancellor of universities. The commission also viewed that the responsibility of being a chancellor has to be taken away from the governor. The cabinet, in the backdrop of the state giving extreme importance to the higher education sector, has decided to appoint persons with academic excellence to the post of chancellors. The state government is working to develop all higher education institutions as centres of academic excellence. These eminent academics will help to achieve this goal with a farsighted perspective, the cabinet felt.

R Bindu, higher education minister, expressed hope that the governor would deliver the constitutional obligation and sign the ordinance. The ordinance is meant to revamp the higher education sector in the state.