Jadavpur University has issued a notice saying it would hold a meeting of its executive council on November 24, though the higher education department had earlier this month asked the university not to call any meeting of the decision-making body in the absence of a full-term vice-chancellor.
Before the Diwali break, the university had written to the education department that it wanted to hold a meeting of the council on November 24 to finalise details of the annual convocation, which is scheduled for December 24.
Officiating vice-chancellor Buddhadeb Sau told Metro: “As the department has not responded (to the pre-Diwali letter), we are assuming that it does not have any objection to the council meeting on Friday and, therefore, we are going ahead with the meeting.”
Asked about JU’s decision to go ahead with the meeting despite the government bar, education minister Bratya Basu said: “Let’s wait for legal opinion on the matter.”
The education department had prevented JU from holding a meeting of the executive council on November 5 on the ground that conducting a council meeting in the absence of a regular VC would amount to violating rules the department had introduced in December 2019.
A circular signed by registrar Snehamanju Basu says: “The 36th meeting of the 10th executive council… shall be held on Friday, the 24th of November. The agenda for the meeting is being circulated… under the direction of the vice-chancellor.”
The agenda includes discussing and finalising “the issue of 66th annual convocation, special convocation, approval of the revised budget for the financial year 2023-2024”.
A JU official said they have sent the agenda of the upcoming meeting to the education department.
“The council will meet on November 24 as we have to finalise the formalities to award honoris causa to distinguished recipients and degrees to graduating students,” said the
official.
A meeting held on November 3 in the office of the officiating VC had proposed that DLitt (honoris causa) be awarded to Sonal Mansingh, Nivedita Raghunath Bhide and Bibek Debroy.
It was also proposed that DSc (honoris causa) be awarded to Kopillil Radhakrishnan, Samir Venkatpathy Kamat and Ajay Mathur.
The executive council is required to ratify the names, following which a communication is to be sent to the chancellor.
Parthapratim Roy, secretary of the JU teachers’ association, said: “According to the latest verdict of the Supreme Court, an officiating VC would receive the pay or perks commensurate with the previous post, not of a VC. So, an officiating VC cannot take any major policy decision like recommending names of the DLitt and DSc recipients. Besides, the government has barred JU from convening any meeting of the executive council. In this context, teachers are wondering whether associating distinguished figures with the convocation would tarnish the image of the
university.”
