After Kerala HC notice to govt & Guv, who will AG appear for?

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 21 After a division bench of the Kerala High Court issued separate notices to the Governor and the state government in the re-appointment of Kannur Vice Chancellor Gopinath Ravindran case, the question now being asked is who will the Attorney General (AG) appear for the Governor or the state government?

The court on Friday (December 17) directed that notices be sent to Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan as he is the chancellor, the State government and the Kannur University. It said notice need not be sent to Ravindran and when the case gets heard on January 12, 2022 his counsel can put forward the arguments.

Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan on Tuesday said this was a peculiar situation. The Kerala Governor will have to bring in a separate counsel as "how can the advocate general (AG) appear for both the government and the Governor", he asked.

"The appointment was done together by both (State and Governor) and now they have parted ways. We, the opposition had then only pointed out that the re-appointment was a total violation of rules and regulations. The Higher Education Minister R. Bindhu has gone one step further by writing to the Governor to do the re-appointment, which is a huge violation of the rules. But she continues to show her arrogance and refuses to answer questions about this issue," said Satheesan.

Incidentally on Wednesday, a single bench of the court dismissed the same plea filed by Kannur University senate member K. Premachandran and another person Shino Jose.

This had come as a relief for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who has been under severe attack from several quarters, including Khan, who after signing the re-appointment order had backtracked by saying that his "hands were tied and now he regrets the decision". He even went public stating that he (Khan) no longer desires to continue as the Chancellor.

The Congress and the BJP have demanded the resignation of Bindhu after her two letters to Khan seeking re-appointment of Ravindran as Chancellor, surfaced. As soon as the Single bench verdict came, there were celebrations in the Vijayan camp and Bindhu, who was seen ducking the media for long, said she has done everything within the rules and that she is not duty-bound to convince the media.

Now all eyes are on Khan, who is deeply upset about the way things are going forward and with the AG all set to appear for the state government, it remains to be seen who is going to be the counsel for the Governor.

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