Caclutta High Court on Tuesday set aside the state education department’s decision to re-appoint 24 vice-chancellors of state-aided universities because the orders did not have the approval of Jagdeep Dhankhar, who was then governor and chancellor.
The governor is the ex officio chancellor of all state-aided universities.
An official in the department said Tuesday’s ruling is unlikely to have any impact on the three-month extension order that many of the 24 VCs received from the current governor, C.V. Ananda Bose, earlier this month. The VCs handed their resignation to the governor before he extended their tenure.
Tuesday’s order was issued by a division bench headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava following a PIL filed by an organisation of college teachers and researchers.
The petition challenged the extension of the tenure of the 24 VCs on the ground that the government had not followed UGC procedures, including obtaining the chancellor’s approval.
“The state government has no power to appoint VC on its own. It will follow the UGC regulation of 2018. The appointments cannot be accepted,” the division bench said. “This court cancels the appointment of the VCs who were appointed by the secretary of the department.”
The education department appointed and reappointed VCs on its own during Dhankhar’s tenure as governor. A tussle broke out between Dhankar and the education department as he started asserting his role as chancellor.
In August 2021, the state government reappointed Sonali Chakravorty Banerjee as full-term VC of Calcutta University without the chancellor’s consent. In January 2022, the state government decided to appoint Soma Bandopadhyay as VC of Diamond Harbour Women’s University, rejecting a name proposed by Dhankhar.
Anupam Bera, convener of the organisation of college teachers and researchers, said the PIL was filed in April 2022.
Lawyer Sushmita Saha, who represented the forum, said on Tuesday: “The court accepted the contention that the authority of appointing the VC is entrusted with the chancellor, not with the state.”
When told that many of the 24 VCs have received a three-month extension from the current chancellor, Saha said: “We may challenge the three-month extension order.”
When asked whether Tuesday’s order was a blow to the state government, education minister Bratya Basu said: “The order was not a blow to us. We agree with the court’s order that the state government cannot appoint a VC without the chancellor’s signature. At this moment we can see all the VCs appointed for three months have the chancellor’s approval.”
When asked why they had earlier appointed VCs without the chancellor’s approval, he said: “That was a different period. You all know that…. We might have some issues with respect to an individual. But at this moment there are no such issues.”