A forum of former vice-chancellors and university teachers blamed the Bengal governor for landing in a “predicament” the six ad-hoc vice-chancellors he had handpicked as the Supreme Court has said these appointees would not receive “the pay or perks of a VC”.
The apex court gave the order on Friday after the state government’s lawyer drew its attention to the fact that the governor, the ex-officio chancellor of state-aided universities, had appointed six ad-hoc VCs at a time the court was hearing a case challenging the chancellor’s authority to make such appointments.
The forum alleged the chancellor C.V. Ananda Bose’s acts of indiscretion have brought disrepute to these VCs, most of whom belong to the fraternity of the teachers like the forum members.
“The chancellor had no business toying with the self-respect of these VCs...,” said Om Prakash Mishra of the forum.
“At a time the court is busy exploring ways to appoint full-term VCs through a search committee, the chancellor sought to defy the process,” he added at a news conference.
Those handpicked by chancellor Bose over the past few months include two retried IPS officers and a retired former chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, all of whom allegedly have no experience of working in the university system.
The apex court had to restrain the governor from making any more such appointments after senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the state, apprised the bench that the appointment orders issued by the chancellor did not even mention that these appointments would be subject to the outcome of the ongoing litigation.
“We are feeling sad that the Supreme Court has said the six VCs would not receive the pay or perks of a VC. They would discharge the responsibility of a VC but wouldn’t receive the pay or perks of a VC. What could be more insulting than this?,” said Mishra, the former interim VC at North Bengal University.
Ranjan Chakrabarti, the former VC of Netaji Subhas Open University, said: “In June, while appointing ad-hoc VCs in defiance of the state higher education department’s suggestion on extending the tenure of incumbent interim VCs, the chancellor said he declined to do so because we did not send him weekly activity reports directly, bypassing the education department. Then in a video message on September 7, he said the extension was denied as some were corrupt, and some stood accused of harassing female students. He has resorted to blatant lies.”
Calls, text messages and an email from this newspaper to the chancellor did not elicit any response.