West Bengal Governor Dr CV Ananda Bose on Friday “dismissed” state Education Minister Bratya Basu's claim that Bose had appointed interim vice-chancellors for 11 universities without consulting the state government.

He implicitly said that there had been consultation but that his office had not necessarily agreed with the state government’s recommendations. “Consultation does not mean concurrence,” said Bose on the sidelines of a programme held at Raj Bhavan.

Calcutta, Jadavpur and Burdwan universities are among the 11 varsities where interim VCs have been appointed by the governor, who is the chancellor of all the state-aided or run varsities.

Sources in Raj Bhavan claimed that 10 interim VCs, barring one in Dakshin Dinajpur district, joined duty and signed the guidelines issued by the Chancellor.

"The interim vice-chancellor of a university in Dakshin Dinajpur district was getting threatening calls from unidentified people, hence he chose not to join," a source in the state education department said.

Hours after the governor's office issued a list appointing interim VCs on Thursday, Basu said the Raj Bhavan's decision was "unilateral" and "violates the law".

“We came to know from the news media that the honourable chancellor has appointed vice-chancellors of 10 state-aided universities. These appointments were made without consulting the department. This was done in contravention of the rules laid down for the appointment of VCs and this is illegal. In these unprecedented circumstances we, on behalf of the department, are taking legal opinions on what steps could be initiated in future,” Basu tweeted.

“On behalf of the higher education department, we are respectfully requesting the vice-chancellors who have been appointed illegally to reject this appointment,” the minister tweeted.

In an apparent response to Basu's tweet, the governor said, "Raj Bhavan clarifies that consultation in the matter of appointment of interim VCs or authorising someone to perform the functions of an interim VC has been done."

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.