Rabindra Bharati University (RBU) has terminated its registrar’s service despite the state higher education department’s request to refrain from taking action because the matter related to suspension is “under judicial scrutiny”.

In a communication to the suspended registrar on Thursday, the university said its executive council meeting on December 4 resolved that Subir Maitra had been “dismissed from the service and would not be entitled to any retirement benefits”.

The university decided to dismiss Maitra because of a pending contempt case in Calcutta High Court.

An RBU official cited an order of a single-judge bench of the high court that the retirement age of accompanists be raised from 60 to 65 years. When Maitra refused to comply, a case of contempt was filed against him last year.

An education department official said since the matter was “under judicial scrutiny”, the government wrote to the university not to discuss the issue at the meeting.

Maitra’s lawyer Arunangshu Chakraborty said they had filed a case in the court questioning whether an “authorised” (officiating) vice-chancellor could suspend and initiate disciplinary proceedings against a registrar appointed by the government.

The university is now helmed by Suvro Kamal Mukherjee, a former chief justice of Karnataka High Court, who was appointed as “authorised” VC by the governor last year allegedly without consulting the government.

Chakrabarty said: “We will challenge the order of termination... a case has been filed questioning the suspension itself...when the government, through rules passed in 2019, barred officiating VCs from calling an executive council meeting, how could the council decide on the termination?”

When Metro contacted VC Mukherjee, he declined to comment.