LDF and UDF find themselves on the same side as legal and political battle lines emerge over draft UGC regulations-OxBig News Network

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan. File.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The ruling front and opposition in Kerala have found themselves on the same side as new legal and political battle lines emerge over the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) contentious draft regulations that purportedly seek to grant chancellors “absolute power” to constitute search committees to appoint the vice-chancellors of State-funded universities. 

On Saturday, V.D. Satheesan, leader of the opposition, demanded that the Kerala Legislative Assembly pass a unanimous resolution against the University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment and Promotion of Teachers and Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2025. 

In a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Mr. Satheesan said the proposed regulations would undermine the autonomy of State universities and precluded the unbiased selection of vice-chancellors. 

He said the central government had attempted to recalibrate UGC regulations to politicise higher education by inserting individuals empathetic to the ruling disposition’s idealogy at the sector’s apex. 

Mr Satheesan also proposed that the State government find legal and legislative means to circumvent the Centre’s bid to rob State-funded varsities of their independence by inserting Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) nominees as vice-chancellors. He said proposed UGC regulations also allowed the Chancellor to intervene in appointing teachers and academic staff.

Mr Vijayan has deemed the draft UGC regulations empowering the Chancellor as the “absolute authority” in State-run varsities as an entrenched bid by the Centre to “communalise, centralise and commercialise” Kerala’s progressive higher education sector. He also pointed out that the UGC regulations ran afoul of the Constitution since education was part of the Concurrent List 

The emerging accord between the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) opposition and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in their joint resistance to the UGC draft regulations assumed significance at a time when Kerala, along with several other non-BJP-ruled States, had profound legal and political differences with their respective governors, who also officiated as Chancellors of State Universities. 

Notably, in 2022, the Kerala Legislative Assembly passed two Kerala University Laws (Amendment) Bills to remove the Governor as Chancellor of State-funded varsities. In 2024, the LDF government moved the Supreme Court against President Droupadi Murmu’s decision to withhold assent for the legislation. 

Amidst the mounting LDF and UDF opposition to the Bill, Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar told reporters in New Delhi on Friday that the UGC and also the judiciary had repeatedly upheld the powers vested in Governors as Chancellors of State-funded varsities. “There are no two ways about it”, he maintained.