NIT-Calicut dean appointment sparks controversy amid Nathuram Godse-linked social media row last year

Controversy surrounds the appointment of Shaija Andavan as Dean at NIT-C due to her controversial social media comment.

The appointment of Shaija Andavan, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the National Institute of Technology – Calicut (NIT-C) who courted controversy in 2024 with her comment on a social media post praising Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, as one of the Deans of the institute has kicked up a controversy with some faculty members alleging that conventional seniority norms were not followed in her appointment.

However, NIT-C authorities have dismissed these allegations, stating that the statutes of the NIT Act were followed in Ms. Andavan’s appointment as Dean (Planning and Development) for two years.

As per the Act, the director of NIT is empowered to appoint deans with intimation to the chairperson of the Board of Governors. Only professors or associate professors are eligible to become deans. Besides, deans, who are appointed for two years, may be given a one-year extension.

“I have been chairing a multidisciplinary centre in NIT-C for the last four years. The centre has 40 faculty members under it and my position was equivalent to that of a head of the department”, said Ms. Andavan in response to the allegations, adding that she is also one of the senior most professors of the Institute with 38 years of teaching experience.

Previously, NIT directors sought applications from professors or associate professors who wished to take up the post of dean. Besides, only those who had been heads of departments were entrusted with the additional responsibilities of a dean. “This was the convention followed some years ago, but it is not mandatory,” a senior faculty member said.

He said the appointment of Ms. Andavan was “legal.”

Deans are appointed in six categories – Academic, Planning and Development, Students’ Welfare, Faculty Welfare, Research and Consultancy, and International, Alumni, and Corporate Relations.