Education minister Bratya Basu said on Friday he could not understand by dint of which law the chancellor of state-aided universities could decide to play the role of vice-chancellor.
The state government, he said, would draw the Supreme Court’s attention to what Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose has just done. “We are considering legal recourse,” Basu said on the Assembly premises.
The governor is ex officio chancellor of all state-aided universities.
A release issued by Raj Bhavan at 10.45pm on Thursday said: “It is observed that Students of a few State Universities in WB where the VC posts are vacant are facing difficulties in obtaining degree certificates and other documents.
“To provide them relief, H’ble Governor of WB in his capacity as the Chancellor has decided to discharge the duties of the VCs in these Universities till new interim VCs are appointed. Students can email their grievances to amnesaamne.rajbhavankolkata@gmail.com or contact peace room at Ph. no. 03322001642.”
On Friday, minister Basu said: “I am clueless about what I should be saying. I want to draw the attention of the Supreme Court and want to say if the court takes note, that the Bengal governor has lent credence to a Bengali proverb that rice and puffed rice are the same. Whoever is chancellor is also vice-chancellor.
“I still cannot figure out by dint of which law he made this possible.”
Calls, a text message and an email from this newspaper to the governor went unanswered.
The education department had last month moved the Supreme Court, challenging the chancellor’s authority to appoint officiating VCs unilaterally.
Of the 31 state-aided universities, as many as 12 don’t have any VC at all. The rest have officiating or interim VCs.
“The chancellor has been unilaterally appointing officiating VCs since April without holding any consultation with the education department and a pattern has emerged,” said an education department official.
“The officiating VC could be anybody — a professor or a former judge (at Rabindra Bharati University) or a retired police officer (Aliah University),”
the official said.
But the absence of even an officiating VC has been inconveniencing students in several universities.
The education department official admitted as much: “Students are facing difficulties in obtaining degree certificates and other essential documents. We heard that some job aspirants have been seeking an audience with the chancellor, so he took steps in regard to issuance of the pertinent documents.”
But, the official added: “In the garb of resolving the stalemate, he (the governor) ended up occupying the chair of VC.”
A former VC, too, questioned the governor’s move. “What was the need for donning the role of VC?” he asked.
A platform of university teachers and former VCs said in a statement: “After seeking names of senior-most professors from the universities, disregarding these, nominating various underqualified persons of choice, removing them at will and subverting the due process of search and selection committee formations, the Chancellor has now gone a hundred steps ahead in creating a world record of shame and desperation.”