Kochi: Dealing a blow to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday refused to stay the appointment of Dr Ciza Thomas as the in-charge Vice Chancellor of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU).
It was Governor Arif Mohammed Khan who gave the orders to Thomas to take over, after the Supreme Court's recent ruling that the incumbent VC was not appointed following the guidelines of the UGC and hence was asked to quit.
After the Vijayan government gave their nominee to the post of in-charge VC, Khan refused it and instead appointed Thomas. The state government then approached the High Court, seeking a stay.
The court refused a stay, despite the state saying that they are the appointing an authority, and asked Thomas to continue and posted the case for further hearing on Friday.
Incidentally, while the state government's plea for the stay was being heard at Kochi, angry SFI activists was protesting before Thomas at her office in the state capital.
Thomas was serving as senior joint director, director of technical education, when she was made the in-charge VC as additional charge, till a full-fledged VC will be appointment.
The CPI-M has already announced that they will continue their protests against Khan.
IANS with inputs