The Supreme Court on Friday asked Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose and chief minister Mamata Banerjee to sit across the table and thrash out their differences over the appointment of vice-chancellors for state universities.
A bench headed by Justice Surya Kant adjourned the matter to the second week of January after asking attorney-general R. Venkataramani, appearing for the governor, who is also the chancellor of all state universities, to use his “good offices” to find a solution to the vexed issue by suggesting to the constitutional authorities to resolve the matter across the table.
The bench, which included Justice Dipankar Datta, told Venkataramani, Bengal standing counsel Astha Sharma, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the Bengal government, and others: “We will again impress upon the attorney-general, Mr Seshadri Naidu (senior advocate for governor), Dr Singhvi (Abhishek Manu) and other counsel for the parties that adjudication is our job, we will do that. But in the interests of the institution, if the learned chancellor and the chief minister or the education minister or the state government, if they can resolve among themselves, it is always in the best interest of the institution. For that your (attorney-general) good offices may play a very vital role.”
The attorney-general responded: “I hope I will be able to resolve it.”
Justice Kant added: “These are matters where you need to appoint persons of eminence as vice-chancellors and there should not be any controversy with regard to the image, stature, eminence of the academician, technician or technocrat or maybe anyone….”
Later, the bench recorded the assurance of the attorney-general that he would use his good offices to resolve the issue across the table so that VC appointments are made in conformity with rules.
Venkataramani also assured the bench that within a week he would share the list of names proposed by the chancellor, for the search committee to select regular VCs, with the petitioners/intervenors in the matter.
At an earlier hearing, the bench had taken exception to the governor’s unilateral decision to appoint ad hoc VCs and directed that the appointees would not get any additional perk on a par with a regular VC.
The bench was dealing with an interim application moved by the state challenging the latest ad hoc appointments of VCs by the chancellor despite the matter being sub judice.
The state has been witnessing a tussle between the Mamata Banerjee government and the governor on their respective powers to appoint VCs for state-run universities.
The state had complained that even after the Supreme Court had issued notices on the dispute between the state and the governor, the chancellor had appointed six ad hoc VCs.
The governor and the chief minister, both constitutional authorities, have not been able to sit across the table and settle the issue, as was suggested by the bench during the earlier hearings.
On Friday, the court also asked the counsel appearing for Bengal, the governor and the UGC to come out with their respective views if they would like to put forward additional names other than the ones already suggested by them for the VC search committee.
On September 15, the bench had asked the Bengal government, the governor and the UGC to suggest three to five names each for a court-appointed “search committee” to select VCs.
It had passed the directions on an application moved by the state saying the chancellor and the UGC had failed to respond to any of the communications/reminders from the government seeking a nominee each from them to constitute the search committee.
On August 21, the bench had issued notices on the Bengal government’s appeal against the appointment of officiating VCs by the governor without consulting the government.