Jadavpur University is awaiting communication from the state government on whether the incumbent vice-chancellor should keep officiating as he was doing or his role was limited to the conduct of the convocation.
JU is looking for a direction as the university is encountering an administrative deadlock with a section of the university’s officials writing to the registrar asking who has the authority to sign files.
A JU official said many in a meeting that was held on Friday with the deans and the heads of departments expressed concern over how the university would be run because of the doubts over the VC’s authority to give financial and administrative approval.
The officiating VC has not been attending office over the past two days. Buddhadeb Sau has confined himself to his mathematics department where he is a professor.
The confusion over the status of the officiating vice-chancellor stems from orders issued by the governor, who is ex-officio chancellor of JU, and the higher education department.
While the chancellor ordered the removal of officiating VC Sau on Saturday evening, the department on the same day asked Sau to keep officiating as VC because no alternative was visible and hold the convocation on December 24.
An official of the education department said: “We have received a query from the university’s registrar seeking to know who has the authority to give any administrative and financial approval. They have sought to know whether the incumbent VC could keep officiating as he was doing.” “We are seeking legal opinion.”
The official wondered whether the chancellor had any right to remove Sau, considering that a legal battle is on between the state government and the chancellor over who has the authority to appoint officiating VCs.
“When the matter is subjudice, the chancellor cannot appoint or remove anyone. Which is why in our communication to the university during the late hours on December 23 we told that the authorised VC can continue as no other alternative was visible in such a short period”, the official added
JU registrar Snehamanju Basu said: “We took opinion from our lawyers. They advised us to wait for what the Supreme Court says on this issue”.
A JU official said clarity should come over who is the officiating VC now as the confusion has crippled administrative and financial approvals.
“The VC is not attending office. He is not even using the car allocated for the VC. The university has drawn up an estimate that it is required to spend Rs 15 crore to repair the building and facelift ahead of the visit by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). But if the VC does not approve, how this task could be taken up,” the JU official said
Manojit Mandal, the head of the English department, said: “During Friday’s meeting, the joint finance officer and the pro-VC raised their concerns about how the university would prepare itself for the impending visit of the NAAC as questions are swirling over who has the authority for administrative and financial approval.”
Asked why he had stayed away from the office, Sau said: “I did not go to the campus as I had certain assignments in the department. It is true that I did not use the official car and came to the department in my car. But there was no specific purpose for this.”
