The Supreme Court on Monday said the process to appoint vice-chancellors at various universities in Bengal shall be completed by December 9 and refused to pass any directions or interfere with the ongoing process being overseen by former Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit.

A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, during the hearing on Monday, orally observed that the appointment process had been almost finalised in 34 varieties, while names for two other universities were in the process of being finalised, if necessary, by issuing fresh advertisements for these posts.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing to December 9, while refusing to interfere with the appointment process in the wake of certain objections raised by the governor’s office represented by attorney general R. Venkataramani.

On July 8, the Supreme Court had constituted “Search cum Selection committees” for all universities in Bengal headed by former Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit to break the logjam between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and governor C.V. Ananda Bose for the appointment of VCs at various universities in the state.

The court had passed the order while dealing with an appeal filed by the Bengal government and certain PIL petitioners challenging Calcutta High Court’s concurrent judgments of a single judge and division bench upholding the interim appointment made by the governor to various varieties. There had been differences between the two constitutional functionaries on the names of the VCs for over 35 varsities in Bengal.

The top court had passed the directions under the Supreme Court’s extraordinary powers under Article 142 with the consent of the two disputing sides, “We will not entertain any objection from any side for noncompliance.”

The bench said in case of any differences between the chief minister and the governor on the final appointment, the Supreme Court would finally determine the name of the appointee.