Kerala CM's Secy’s wife gets appointment letter of Kannur University, UGC to approach SC

Thiruvananthapuram, July 4 With the UGC all set to approach the Supreme Court against the Kerala High Court which upheld the appointment of Priya Varghese -- the wife of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's secretary K.K. Ragesh -- as an Associate Professor in Kannur University, she was given her posting order asking her to join in 15 days time at the Nileshwaram campus in Kasargod district.

The division bench verdict came last month when it overturned a single bench judgement that asked to re-scrutinize her appointment after the second ranked candidate raised objections against her appointment, which according to the petitioner was in violation of the UGC guidelines.

Incidentally, Varghese after getting the favourable verdict, quickly filed a caveat petition in the Supreme Court, fearing the second ranked candidate would approach the apex court seeking a stay on her appointment. Now with the UGC making it clear that they will approach the apex court, all eyes are on what could be an interesting battle and even the second ranked candidate is also getting ready to approach the court.

Last November, a single-bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran ruled that Varghese lacked the qualifications as prescribed by the UGC and that her appointment needs to be re-scrutinized. But with the division bench last week setting aside the verdict and clearing her appointment, one more hurdle before the Kannur University was the stay of the Chancellor, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.

As per sources, the Kannur University sought legal advice on how to untie the stay of the Chancellor and they received the all clear signal as the High Court cleared it.

The CPI(M) leadership has criticized those who opposed the appointment. Ragesh, a former Rajya Sabha member of the CPI(M), hails from Kannur and is considered to be a close aide of Vijayan.

The issue surfaced last year when an RTI query revealed that Varghese got the maximum marks (32 out of 50) in the personal interview, while the second ranked candidate Jacob Skariah scored 30. Varghese's research score was a mere 156, while the second-ranked candidate secured 651. However, Varghese was ranked first based on the personal interview.