Calcutta High Court on Thursday expressed “dissatisfaction” at Visva-Bharati’s decision to terminate the services of Sudipta Bhattacharyya, professor of economics, and said it hoped the university would not take any further steps against him till the matter was heard on January 31.

An order issued by Justice Kausik Chanda said: “I must record my dissatisfaction with regard to the letter dated December 22, 2022, issued by the Registrar of Visva-Bharati as impugned in the writ petition. By the said letter, the Registrar of the University informed the petitioner (Bhattacharyya) that the Executive Council of the University resolved to discontinue the service/ contract of the petitioner in terms of its decision dated December 14, 2022.”

“The University in the meantime, (hopefully) will not take any further steps against the petitioner following the impugned order,” the court added, listing the matter for hearing on January 31.

During the hearing, the Visva-Bharati counsel tried to convince the court that Bhattacharyya’s service was contractual.

However, Justice Chanda said: “I am not satisfied with the submission. In my prima facie view, the petitioner was a regular permanent employee whose service could not be terminated without initiating a full-fledged disciplinary proceeding.”

The court asked the university counsel to file an affidavit within seven days.

Bhattacharyya, a senior professor and president of the Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association, was sacked by the executive council — the university’s highest decision-making body — five years before his retirement would be due, on charges of gross misconduct on December 22.

Many campus residents termed the move an “act of vengeance” by vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, against whom Bhattacharyya had written several emails of complaint to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union education minister. Sections of teachers and students have accused Chakraborty of muzzling dissent and pursuing an agenda to “saffronise” the institution.

Several academics, activists and social workers have come together to condemn the decision to sack the professor. Over 260 academics, including Noam Chomsky, the public intellectual and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), wrote to President Droupadi Murmu, the Visitor of Visva-Bharati, on January 9 seeking her intervention.

On Thursday, Kaushik Bhattacharya, secretary of the teachers’ union, said: “The punitive action by the administration is an act of vengeance. We are hopeful that our colleague will get justice in the court of law.”

Kaushik Bhattacharya said he, too, had been transferred to the publishing department on a non-teaching assignment three months ago.

Samim Ahammed, a lawyer at the high court who has fought several cases on behalf of Visva-Bharati employees against coercive action by the authorities but is not associated with Sudipta Bhattacharyya, said: “All the charges made by the university against the professor are vicious in nature and should be quashed.”

Around 1,000 people headed by CPM veteran Biman Bose marched in Bolpur on Thursday evening, protesting against Visva-Bharati’s decision to terminate Bhattacharyya and suspend seven students for taking part in protests.