mammootty got doctrate

The University of Calicut will confer honorary Doctor of Letters
(D.Litt.) degrees on film actor Mammootty, freedom fighter Captain
Lakshmi Sahgal, and historian Irfan Habib at a special convocation to
be held on the campus on Thursday.

Governor R.S. Gavai, who is Chancellor of the university, will confer
the degrees. Mr. Mammootty will accept the honour in person when Mr.
Habib and Ms. Sahgal will be represented by their deputies.

Apart from these three, Calicut University Syndicate had decided to
confer honorary D.Litt. on Malayalam novelist Kovilan also. But his
death in June this year deprived him of the topmost degree of the
university as the statutes of the university do not permit conferring
of a degree posthumously.

The convocation will be held at a specially raised stage in front of
the C.H. Mohammed Koya Memorial Central Library. Minister for
Education M.A. Baby, who is Pro-Chancellor of the university, will
attend the function.

Academic procession

The Senate will meet at a temporary senate house at the venue at 11.40
a.m. and ratify the conferral of D.Litt. degrees. The Chancellor will
reach the senate house at 12 noon, and will join an academic
procession to the convocation venue.

Members of the Syndicate and Senate will lead the procession, followed
by members of the Academic Council, Registrar, Vice-Chancellor,
Pro-Chancellor, and Chancellor in order.

The convocation is scheduled to begin at 12.05 p.m. and conclude by 1
p.m. It will be a holiday for the university on Thursday.

The Governor reached university campus on Wednesday afternoon.
Security on the campus has been stepped up. Only invitees will be
allowed to attend the convocation, said university authorities.

Previous awardees

So far, the university conferred honorary D.Litt. degrees on 12
persons. They were M.M. Ghani, educationalist and first
Vice-Chancellor of Calicut University; K.P. Kesava Menon, freedom
fighter and founder of 'Matrubhumi' newspaper; S.K. Pottekkad, writer;
Vaikom Mohammed Basheer, writer; N.V. Krishna Warrier, writer and
editor; V.R. Krishna Iyer, jurist; Aryavaidyan P.K. Warrier, chief
physician and managing trustee of Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala; M.T.
Vasudevan Nair, writer; M.F. Husain, artist; Arun Nigavekar,
educationalist and former chairman of the University Grants
Commission; Amrik Singh, educationalist; and Kamala Suraiyya, writer.