Turning a new leaf in the state-Raj Bhavan stand-off chapter, the Mamata Banerjee government passed the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023 on Friday amid the opposing BJP MLAs not only staging a protest walkout from the Assembly floor but also following it up by knocking on the Governor’s door and urging him to not grant his assent to the passed Bill.

The Bill replaces an ordinance promulgated by the state in May this year and approved by Governor CV Ananda Bose which sought to constitute a five-member search committee for the appointment of vice chancellors in state-run universities in sync with the provisions of Regulations of 2018 of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The Bill was passed amid a Division in the House with 120 members of the Trinamul Congress present and voting in favour of the amendment and 51 members of the BJP voting against.

Interestingly, the Bill was passed at a time when the state higher education department is at loggerheads with Bose over the persisting logjam in vacant Vice Chancellor’s positions in state universities and the Governor appointing interim VCs of his choosing in 11 of them. Amongst those appointments, the most contentious one perhaps has been the appointment of former Karnataka High Court chief justice Shubhro Kamal Mukherjee, a person of non-academic background, as an interim VC of Rabindra Bharati University in Calcutta.

While state education minister Bratya Basu has already announced his plans to move the Supreme Court against the Governor’s “undue unilateral interference” in state’s higher education sector, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had recently lashed out at Bose for setting up an anti-corruption cell in Raj Bhavan accusing him of “overstepping boundaries at the behest of BJP-led Centre’s instructions”.

What’s more, the passing of the Bill coincided with Bose’s purported direction to the interim VC of Jadavpur University, Professor Amitava Dutta, to step down from his position to which he was appointed by Bose himself only a month ago following the exit Professor Suranjan Das, Dutta’s predecessor. Dutta, the former pro-VC of the institution, quit the VC’s chair on Friday and went back to his former office following instructions from the Raj Bhavan, it was learnt from sources in the university.

The Bill, meanwhile, repealed the ordinance as part of its Constitutional mandate but replicated the provisions already made by the latter. As per the proposed amendment, the five-member search committee comprises a representative each of the UGC, the chief minister, the Governor, the higher education council and the state government. The Governor’s representative would serve as the ex-officio chairperson of the committee. As against the existing state University Laws Act, the Bill drops from the committee representatives of the senate/executive council of the said universities which govern the academic and administrative policies of the institutions.

Opposing the Bill, the BJP alleged that the state government bulldozed the legislation by virtue of its brute majority in the House. The current composition of the committee would tilt the balance in favour of the state government by effectively reducing the Governor’s say in such appointments, the party felt.

“We are not going to allow the universities to become de facto Trinamul Congress party offices. We will urge the Governor to not sign this Bill which was passed by sheer muscle power of the ruling dispensation,” said Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition, while holding a demonstration at the Assembly portico after the BJP legislative party walked out of the floor.

“The amendments have been brought as per UGC recommendations which are already being followed by the central universities of this country. There cannot be two sets of policies for universities run by the Centre and the states, can they? The Governor had himself given his nod for the ordinance. If he backs out now, then our contention that he acts as per instructions of the BJP would once again be vindicated,” responded Bratya Basu, who signed and tabled the Bill in the Assembly.

It is in this context that the Raj Bhavan’s next move – on whether it approves or declines the Bill – would be worth watching out for.