Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot has been conspicuous by his absence at the convocation ceremonies of the public universities in the state in the past one month. Gehlot, who had granted sanction for prosecution against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the MUDA land allotment case, is facing the heat from Congress workers, who have threatened to stage protests at every event the governor is scheduled to attend.
Even as the High Court has reserved its order on the plea by the CM seeking to quash the sanction order, the state cabinet is mulling over slashing the governor’s powers as the chancellor. In the state cabinet meeting held at Kalaburagi recently, a decision was taken to curtail the powers of the governor in the appointment of the vice-chancellor of the Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University in Gadag. The cabinet approved the draft of The Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill-2024, which is likely to be tabled in the next legislature session in November.
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After the passage of the bill in both Houses of the state legislature, it will be sent for governor’s assent and he is free to either approve it or reject it. However, a new law to be enacted, will be made applicable to all 31 Public Universities in the state, say senior leaders of the ruling party.
Presently, the search committee appointed by the state government shortlists three names of eligible candidates (academicians) for the appointment to the vice-chancellor and sends it to the governor for his approval. But, once the proposed bill becomes a law, the state government will be free to finalise a single name of the three names proposed by the search committee, which will then be sent to the governor for his nod.
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This is not the first time that a state government has tried to curtail the powers of the governor as the chancellor. West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have made a similar move. However, the Siddaramaiah cabinet hopes to emulate the Gujarat model.
In 2013, when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, his government had pushed for a similar bill. But then, governor Kamla Beniwal (appointed by the UPA government at the Centre) had refused to sign the bill. Eventually, the bill was approved much later after Beniwal was replaced by O.P. Kohli as the governor.
It may be recalled that on April 25, 2022, the Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed the Tamil Nadu Universities Laws (Amendment) Act, 2022, and Chennai University Act, 1923 Chennai University (Amendment) Act, 2022, empowering the state government to take over the governor's power of appointing vice-chancellors to universities.
The Kerala cabinet, too, had decided to promulgate an ordinance to remove the governor as the head of state varsities. But, both the BJP and the Congress-led UDF had opposed the move.
On June 6, 2024, the Mamata Banerjee cabinet approved the proposal to remove the governor as visitor of private universities and make the chief minister the chancellor of all state-run universities in West Bengal.