Powered by

Home Home

Kerala HC cancels appointment of Dalit activist Rekha Raj as Assistant professor

Dalit activist Rekha Raj; The Kerala High Court cancelled the appointment of the famous Dalit activist as an assistant professor

By Ground report
New Update
Kerala HC cancels appointment of Dalit activist Rekha Raj as Assistant professor

The Kerala High Court cancelled the appointment of the famous Dalit activist Rekha Raj as an assistant professor at Mahatma Gandhi University.

Rekha Raj was appointed assistant professor of Gandhian studies. Nisha Velappan Nair, who was ranked second on the ranking list, appealed to the High Court against this decision.

The order was issued by a Division Court composed of Justices P.B. Suresh Kumar and C.S. Sudha in allowing Ms. Nisha's appeal.

Ms. Nisha, who came in second place in the selection process, received 46.61 points out of 100, while Ms. Raj, who came in the first place, received 49.40 points. The petitioner maintained that she was not given the eligible scores when calculating the scores, while Ms. Raj was given scores under different headings to which she is not entitled.

The petitioner's case was that she should have been awarded 54.61 points and Ms. Raj only 35.40 points.

In its order, the court noted that the university's decision to award eight points to Ms. Raj under the heading "research publication" would certainly affect the right to equality guaranteed to other applicants under articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

The guilty plea states that she received no grades for her Ph.D. and that Rekha Raj received more grades than she deserved for her research papers. This argument was accepted by the High Court Divisional Chamber composed of Judges P B Suresh Kumar and C S Sudha and declared the appointment null and void. The court also ordered Nisha Velappan Nair to be appointed in place of Rekha Raj.

Earlier, the court issued an order suspending the appointment of the wife of CPM leader KK Ragesh, Priya Varghese, at Kannur University. The court took the move when the governor of Kerala, who is the university chancellor, decided to launch an investigation into the appointment at universities in the last three years.

You can connect with Ground Report on FacebookTwitterKoo AppInstagram, and Whatsapp and Subscribe to our YouTube channel. For suggestions and writeups mail us at [email protected]