The Kerala University (KU) will seek police protection to ensure the maintenance of law and order during the senate meeting scheduled to be held on February 16.
The meeting has been convened to discuss the Raj Bhavan directive to nominate a member to the search-cum-selection committee to appoint the next Vice-Chancellor.
Vice-Chancellor in-charge Mohanan Kunnummal issued directions to the Registrar to seek police protection on the basis of a complaint submitted by a newly-nominated senate member, who has claimed to have received threats.
In its request, the university will cite the judgement of the Kerala High Court issued in the aftermath of the unruly scenes that had unfolded at Calicut University two months ago when Students Federation of India (SFI) activists obstructed the senate members who were nominated by the Governor, official sources said.
The senate meeting, the first since the appointment of the 17 senate members by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, is expected to be a stormy one with the Left-backed Syndicate members having questioned the propriety of convening the meeting. A delegation had recently registered its protest with the Vice-Chancellor and also threatened to pursue legal options against the move.
The appointment of the new members, allegedly backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to the senates in Kerala and Calicut Universities, had emerged as a latest flashpoint in the tiff between the Governor and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
