: The government has reconstituted the Mahatma Gandhi University Syndicate changing all but one member of the UDF-nominated Syndicate.
The decision was expected and incidentally the government has made use of the provisions of the M.G. University Act which was amended by the former UDF government to axe the LDF-nominated members of the then Syndicate.
New members
The members of the new Syndicate are: P.K. Harikumar, Tomichan Joseph, V.S. Praveen Kumar, K. Sherafuddin, Aji C. Panicker, M.S. Murali, and A. Jose.
S. Sujatha of NSS College, Changanassery, has retained her position among the constituency of Persons from the Field of Higher Education. Among the Principals’ Constituency, B. Padmanabha Pillai and K. Alexander have found their place in the newly constituted Syndicate.
Others on the list are K. Krishna Das, P.K. Padmakumar and R. Pragash (from the constituency for Lecturers), Raju Abraham (in place of Dominic Presentation from the constituency for MLAs) and Arya Rajan from the constituency for student.
The provisions used for the removal of the UDF-nominated Syndicate were incorporated in 2011.
‘UDF made amendments’
The sub-section (3) of Section 22 of the M.G. University Act of 1985 was amended to read as follows: “The members of the Syndicate nominated by the Chancellor or the government shall hold office during the pleasure of the Chancellor or the government, as the case may be.” It was, in fact, criticised by the Left organisations as an infringement on the autonomy of the university.
The UDF government, then in December 2011, had disbanded the LDF-nominated Syndicate (which had a tenure till February 2015) and reconstituted the body. It was again reconstituted in January 2016 when its tenure was completed. It is this body that has been reconstituted by the LDF government now.
The government has made use of the provisions of the
M.G. University Act
to axe the members.