Calcutta University held its syndicate meeting on Tuesday though education minister Bratya Basu had said the day before that his department had not granted CU permission to hold the meeting.
The syndicate at the Tuesday meeting approved examination-related regulations for the four-year undergraduate programme, without which, CU registrar Debasis Das said, the first semester exams could not be held in January.
“The examination regulations committee of the university had approved the rules. But those could only come into effect with the syndicate’s approval. Without this formality, it would have been difficult for us to conduct the examinations,” said Das.
Told about the bar on holding the meeting, he said: “Not holding the meeting would have impacted the future of the students. We did not have any choice.”
CU’s officiating vice-chancellor Santa Datta said on Monday evening: “After the education department denied us permission, we consulted the chancellor.... He advised us, after examining the Calcutta University Act, to hold the syndicate meeting”.
The Telegraph has reported that CU had written to the higher education department on December 8, seeking permission to call a meeting of the syndicate, its highest decision-making body.
An official of the department said in a letter to the CU registrar on Monday that holding the meeting would be in violation of rules because the university does not have a “regular (full-term) vice-chancellor”.
The university has since June been helmed by the officiating VC, who was handpicked by governor C.V. Ananda Bose (the ex-officio chancellor of state-aided universities) allegedly without consulting the state government.
The official was referring to Rule 3(5) of West Bengal State University (Terms and Conditions of the Service of the Vice-Chancellor and the Manner and Procedure of Official Communication) rules 2019.
The rule says: “The person holding charge of the office of the vice-chancellor shall
only discharge to do the routine functions of the university but shall not hold any meeting of the Senate/Court/Governing Board or the syndicate/Executive Council of the University without prior permission of the State government.”
The rules were introduced in December 2019 amid a turf war between the education department and the then governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, over who would control the universities.
A college principal said CU had no option but to hold the syndicate meeting because the future of over 1 lakh students in over 140 affiliated colleges was at stake.
The syndicate meeting could not be held since October 16 following objections from the department.... The university had to proceed with the meeting in the interest of the students, disregarding the objections from the government,” said the principal, who is a also syndicate member.
When asked whether the CU would land in trouble by holding the meeting disregarding a bar imposed by the government, the registrar said: “That is for the education department to say.”
Calls and text messages from this newspaper to the education minister failed to elicit any response.
The state government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the chancellor’s authority to appoint officiating VCs unilaterally.