The executive council of Visva-Bharati has decided to form a committee headed by a retired high court judge to get legal opinion for steps on alleged 24 irregular appointments at the varsity.

The decision was taken after the Union ministry of human resource development had asked the varsity to take steps against the 24 appointments during the tenure of former vice-chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta. He had been sacked on charges of administrative and financial irregularities in February 2016.

“At the meeting of the executive council yesterday (Saturday), we decided to appoint a retired high court judge to look into the appointments and recommend proper steps,” said Sushovan Banerjee, the President’s nominee in the executive council.

A fact-finding committee headed by former chief justice of Allahabad High Court Sakharam Singh Yadav had found the 24 appointments to be irregular.

One of the 24 employees in question, however, said: “We will definitely take legal steps to save our jobs because we were appointed through interviews. There may have been irregularities in the process of recruitment but we were given jobs as the selection committee was satisfied with our interviews and merit.”

Last week, a court had jailed ex-Visva-Bharati VC Dilip Sinha for forgery in connection with the appointment of a teacher.