Row over awarding PhD to ISRO chairman

 

The Higher Education Protection Council has moved the Governor against the Kerala University’s decision to award the honorary doctorate and the Governor has forwarded the petition to the Vice Chancellor for his views.

 

Vice Chancellor Dr P.K.Radhakrishnan had come up with a proposal to  award a doctorate to the ISRO Chairman for his stellar role in the Mangalyaan’s project. The VC made the proposal exercising emergency powers of the syndicate. The suggestion was to award a Doctor of Science (DSc) degree to Radhakrishnan.

 

The VC said the Kerala University had likewise awarded a DSc degree to the then ISRO chairman G.Madhavan Nair just after the Chandrayaan mission. So awarding a DSc to K.Radhakrishan was but natural justice.

 

However, the Higher Education Protection Council convener and former syndicate member R.S.Sasikumar in a petition to Governor P.Sathasivan, the Chancellor of the University, alleged that the Vice Chancellor could exercise the powers of the syndicate only in case of an emergency in the university. The award of honorary degree was not an urgent matter, the petition alleged.

 

The petition pointed out that the university did not have a syndicate for the last six months. It is also still unsure of when elections to the next syndicate will be held. The Vice Chancellor in all fitness of things could well have waited for a syndicate, instead of taking a decision on a matter neither urgent nor immediate, the petition pointed out.

 

The new VC who is yet to master the nuances of the university statutes, ordinances and rules may have inadvertently delayed the formation of the syndicate. He has now initiated action for holding elections to the syndicate, the petition says.