Overview

• Retired Supreme Court judge Sudhanshu Dhulia was appointed to chair search-cum-selection panels for APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology.
• A bench of Justices J. B. Pardiwala and K. V. Viswanathan gave him discretion to form a common or separate five-member committee, drawing two nominees each from lists submitted by the Governor and the state.
• The committee must be constituted within two weeks, the state must advertise the posts with four weeks for applications, scrutiny is to be completed in one week, and the panels must finish their task within a further month.
• Each committee will forward an alphabetically arranged panel of at least three names for consideration as regular vice-chancellors, with the Education Department acting as the nodal agency for advertisements and applications.
• The court sanctioned an honorarium of ₹3 lakh per sitting and logistical support for Justice Dhulia, and it deferred larger legal questions between the state and the Governor until after the selection exercise; similar court-led interventions have been used in West Bengal.