Summary
The education department will take legal opinion on the matter and communicate its decision to the university, the minister told the VC during a meeting
Education minister Bratya Basu on Friday told Jadavpur University’s officiating vice-chancellor to send details of their plans for the convocation, which is usually held on December 24.
The education department will take legal opinion on the matter and communicate its decision to the university, the minister told the VC during a meeting.
VC Buddhadeb Sau, pro-VC Amitava Datta and registrar Snehamanju Basu met the minister at Bikash Bhavan, which houses the headquarters of the education department, to seek permission for the convocation.
“We requested the education minister to allow us to hold the convocation. The students who have graduated and are awaiting degree certificates will suffer if the event is not held. To hold the convocation, the executive council of the university needs to meet to approve certain formalities for the ceremony,” Sau said after the meeting.
“The education minister has told us to send details of our plans for the convocation. He will take legal opinion and get back to us.”
Minister Basu said: “They (the JU delegation) raised the issue of the executive council meeting and convocation. I told them these are legal issues. These issues are sub judice as they are being heard by the Supreme Court. We heard whatever they had to say. We will take legal opinion on this.”
Metro reported on Friday that the university had written to the education department, seeking permission to hold the convocation.
As there was no reply to the letter from the government, the VC and other senior functionaries went to Bikash Bhavan to meet the minister, a JU official said.
The education department has so far barred JU from holding any meeting of its executive council on the ground that there is no “regular (full-term) VC”.
The council, the highest decision-making body of the university, has to meet before the convocation to ratify certain formalities related to the programme.
“The university cannot have a full-term VC any time soon. So, the VC and others went to meet the minister,” the official said.
An official in the education department had earlier told this newspaper that they did not consider Sau, who was handpicked by governor C.V. Ananda Bose in August as officiating VC, allegedly without consulting the state government, as regular VC.
The governor is the ex officio chancellor of JU.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had gone to Raj Bhavan last Monday and discussed with the governor ways to solve what she called “pending problems” over the appointment of full-term vice-chancellors.
Mamata called on Bose three days after the Supreme Court had asked the governor and the chief minister to sit across the table and thrash out their differences over the appointment of VCs of state universities.
“The process of appointing a full-term VC will take time. We hope the department will allow JU to hold the convocation. Or else, the degree recipients will suffer,” said a JU official.
Minister’s allegation
Education minister Basu said on Friday the representatives of Jadavpur University who called on him on Friday told him that those who have appointed them are pressuring them to take penal measures against the teachers and former vice-chancellors owing allegiance to the state government.
VC Sau on Monday notified the formation of a four-member committee to probe a complaint against Omprakash Mishra, a professor in JU’s international relations department and a former VC of North Bengal University.
A section of teachers in the international relations department had lodged a complaint with the chancellor accusing Mishra of irregularities in PhD admissions.
“I merely informed the minister that after receiving a communication from Raj Bhavan, I notified the formation of a four-member committee. No one put any pressure on me,” Sau told this newspaper.
Last updated on 09 Dec 2023
