The state government will bring to the Supreme Court’s attention the fact that the governor’s nominees for a search committee to select vice-chancellors include the IIT Kharagpur director, who Calcutta High Court had said “sought to mislead the court” with regard to a student’s death, an official said.
Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, who is chancellor of state-aided universities, has submitted a panel of five experts to the Supreme Court, which has taken
upon itself the task of constituting a search committee for appointment of full-term
VCs.
The official in the state education department said they were shocked to know that the IIT Kharagpur director, V.K. Tewari, was among the five.
Tewari was accused by Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of Calcutta High Court in December of “suppression of facts” in regard to the death of Faizan Ahmed, an IIT Kharagpur student who was found dead in a hostel room last October.
Justice Mantha had told a lawyer representing the IIT that “your director has sought to mislead the court”, which the judge said “appears to be suppression of facts”.
“The state government will bring this to the attention of the apex court when the case related to the appointment of VCs come up for hearing again on October 6,” the education department official said.
“The mother of the deceased student wrote to the chief minister seeking justice. It is unfair to suggest that such a person be included in the search committee.”
Forensic medicine specialist Ajay Gupta, who performed a second post-mortem on Faizan’s remains, told the high court in June that the death appeared to be a case of “homicide”.
Calls, text messages and emails from this newspaper to the IIT director failed to elicit any response.
Apart from Tewari, the names on the governor’s recommended panel are Uday Maitra, professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; Ramesh Chandra, VC, Maharaja Surajmal Brij University, Bharatpur; Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain, professor, IIT Delhi; and Indranil Manna, VC, BIT, Mesra.
The state government and the UGC, too, have recommended panels of five names each.
This newspaper sent an email to the governor seeking his comment on the issue. He wrote back: “Your mail is received and is being examined”.
When contacted, education minister Bratya Basu declined to comment.