A platform of former vice-chancellors has expressed their “deep anguish” over governor C.V. Ananda Bose’s decision to replace an officiating vice-chancellor of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT) in two-and-a-half months without any notice to the incumbent.
The university got its second officiating VC on Thursday with governor Bose, who is chancellor of MAKAUT and all other state-aided universities, replacing Indranil Mukherjee with Gautam Majumdar.
The governor had appointed Mukherjee in late April.
Mukherjee told The Telegraph on Thursday that he had no clue until the registrar informed him on Thursday afternoon that the chancellor had replaced him with Majumdar, a professor at Jadavpur University.
The platform has said in a press release: “Without any notice, a professor-in-charge appointed in MAKAUT on April 27, has now been suddenly substituted, without any intimation to the incumbent.… We express our deep anguish over the extremely serious situation caused by the illogical and arbitrary action of the chancellor.”
Calls, text messages and emails from this newspaper to chancellor Bose failed to elicit any response.
The platform has also criticised Bose for appointing Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, a former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, as officiating VC of Rabindra Bharati University.
“Flouting all norms and provisions of the founding acts and the UGC regulations, a retired justice has been ‘appointed/ authorised’ as vice-chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University,” says the statement.
Om Prakash Mishra, former interim VC of North Bengal University and one of the signatories to the statement, said it seems the chancellor was arbitrarily appointing some professors as in-charge.
“The education department has extended the period within which a full-term vice-chancellor has to be appointed, after the term of an incumbent ends, from six months to 12 months. The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, promulgated in mid-May after the chancellor signed it, spells out the provision. This would enable those who were serving as interim VCs to continue for some more time, allowing the search process to be completed,” said Mishra.
“Instead of acting in accordance with this provision, the chancellor is replacing officiating VCs at will.”
The former vice-chancellors have said they expect the higher education department and the state government to address the “grave situation” immediately.