In an unprecedented turn of events, authorities of Visva-Bharati – Rabindranath Tagore-founded university in Santiniketan, Birbhum – have moved the Delhi High Court against the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and added the Union government as a respondent to the case. The fact that the move was made on the poet’s 82nd death anniversary could just be an addition to the irony.
It deserves mention that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the ex-officio Chancellor of the Centre-funded University.
The writ petition, filed by the university through its Registrar, seeks to quash a summons issued by the Commission for an in-person appearance of vice chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty and acting registrar Manabendra Nath Saha before the Commission’s vice chairman in his New Delhi office at 11 am on August 11. The appearance notice for a hearing, dated August 7, is in connection with a complaint lodged before the national SC panel by Prashant Meshram, joint registrar of the university and a member of the SC community, alleging “discrimination, harassment, denial of progression opportunity and causing atrocities by the administration of Visva-Bharti, Santiniketan''.
The Commission also directed the VC and registrar to carry all “up-to-date action taken reports and all relevant documents including the relevant files, case diaries etc. to facilitate the hearing”.
The matter is likely to be listed for hearing before the high court on an urgent basis on August 10, a day before the scheduled date of appearance of the two top authorities before the Commission, an e-mail communication from the petitioner’s advocate revealed.
Earlier on July 5 Meshram, who served Visva-Bharati for the past 18 years, lodged a criminal case at Santiniketan police station against the VC and three more varsity officials for abusing him as he was an SC employee. Meshram wrote that since he reported his harassment by varsity authorities to the NCSC seeking justice, Chakraborty abused him on June 26 in the presence of other officials. He further alleged that the VC asked his secretary not to allow SC, ST and OBC officials in his office and asked officials of reserved categories not to call him over the phone.
A section of university teachers under the umbrella of the Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association (VBUFA) had previously written to President Droupadi Murmu, Visitor to the university, and others including Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan citing the case filed against Chakraborty and urging them to take appropriate steps against the VC.
Monday’s developments, arguably the first in the university’s history, to move court against a statutory body and the Centre besides one of its own senior officials was the talking point in the campus among teachers and students alike. “We demand to know whether this legal move against the SC commission and the Centre was approved by the university’s executive council, the top decision making body? We ask this because no EC meetings have taken place in recent times. Was the decision to move the court using university money taken unilaterally by the vice chancellor?,” asked Sudipta Bhattacharya, predident, VBUFA.
“How can he make such a move to save his own back and drag the Prime Minister, the university chancellor, into it?” Bhattacharya questioned.
Kaushik Bhattacharya, another teacher at Visva Bharati expressed his doubts on whether such a petition is at all maintainable in court. “Only an individual having fundamental rights can file writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. Visva-Bharati being an institution cannot have any fundamental rights. So, the writ petition is liable to be dismissed,” he opined.
