K.GIRINDRA BABU Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above writ petition was filed at a stage when the Kerala Agricultural University was trifurcated and one of the Universities constituted was the University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, under the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies Act, 2010 (Act 5 of 2011).

(2.) The petitioner, an employee has filed the above writ petition in a representative capacity contending that the petitioner and other similarly placed employees of the Kerala Agricultural University have now been transferred to the University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies without giving them any option. In fact, the learned counsel for the respondent University would submit that, there could be no such option given to the teaching staff since they are persons who have been appointed in the faculty of Fisheries and Ocean Studies and on the said faculties being constituted, under a different University, necessarily they would have to be transferred to the said University.

(3.) In any event, the apprehension of the petitioner and the cause of action for the above writ petition was the anticipated reduction in service benefits for reason of the University going out of the umbrella of the University Grants Commission (UGC)/Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).