Rabindra Bharati University held its executive council meeting on Wednesday allegedly defying a state higher education department directive to cancel it.

On Tuesday, the higher education department asked the university not to hold the meeting “until and unless permitted by the state government” because RBU was helmed by an officiating vice-chancellor and the process of appointing a full-term VC through a Supreme Court-appointed search committee was on.

Pradipta Mukherjee, an executive council member nominated by the higher education council, said he walked out of the meeting on Wednesday because it was held without the government’s consent.

“The meeting could not be started on time as the RBU authorities struggled to secure a quorum. Then a teacher was forced to join the meeting online to get the numbers. I walked out of the meeting within five minutes of the start after registering my note of dissent,” said Mukherjee.

Calls and text messages to officiating VC Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, who was appointed to the position in July 2023 by the governor allegedly without consulting the department, failed to elicit any response.

An RBU official said the executive council meeting was called to discuss the appointment of Nirmalya Narayan Chakraborty, professor in the philosophy department, as the full-term vice-chancellor of Presidency University.

A defamation letter against the university’s decision to terminate the service of its registrar, Subir Maitra, last month was also discussed at the meeting, said the
official.