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Bengal governor appoints lawyer to represent him at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University
The appoinment was made days after Raj Bhawan appointed a retired judge from Karnataka and a retired IPS officer from Kerala as acting vice-chancellors of two universities
KOLKATA: West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose has appointed a lawyer as his representative to the executive council (EC) of Kolkata’s Jadavpur University (JU), triggering a sharp reaction from the institute’s association of teachers.
Partha Pratim Ray, general secretary of Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA), said this was the first time that a lawyer has been appointed as the chancellor’s nominated member in the university’s executive council, its highest decision-making body. “This is not desired. Ideally, a person which academic background should be selected for the post,” he said.
The university was told about the governor’s decision to nominate lawyer, Sushmita Saha Dutta, on Tuesday,
Bose is chancellor of West Bengal’s 31 state-run universities.
The development came days after Bose appointed retired chief justice of Karnataka high court, Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, as acting vice-chancellor (V-C) of Kolkata’s Rabindra Bharati University on July 4 and a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from Kerala, M Wahab, as working V-C of Kolkata’s Aliah University on July 21.
The two appointments were made without consultation with the state government, an official of the higher education department said on condition of anonymity.
No Raj Bhawan official commented on the appointments.
Bengal education minister Bratya Basu could not be contacted.
West Bengal is witnessing an impasse in the higher education department since last year when the tenure of vice-chancellors at 29 universities ended. Their services were extended till May 31 this year and the government started the process to form search committees to select new incumbents.
Differences between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government and the Raj Bhawan surfaced in June when Bose appointed senior professors from 13 universities as vice chancellors without consulting the TMC government. The Bengal government hit back by stopping the salaries of the new appointees saying they were not recruited by the education department.
Sanat Kumar Ghosh, a retired professor, challenged the appointments and filed a public interest litigation (PIL) at the Calcutta high court which upheld the governor’s decision in an order issued on June 28. The court also revoked the state’s order on the suspension of salaries.
The TMC criticised Bose on Thursday, alleging that he was out to destroy the education system. Rules of the University Grants Commission (UGC) stipulate that only eminent professors with administrative experience can be appointed as V-Cs, the party said.
TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said: “This governor wants to disturb the academic atmosphere of Bengal by misusing his position as chancellor. UGC rules say the basic requirement for being a V-C is a professorship for at least 10 years and experience in administering an academic institution. Since there are no separate criteria for acting V-Cs, the governor is using this grey area under instructions from the Bharatiya Janata Party.”
“Bengal is known across the world for excellence in higher education. The governor wants to destroy that image,” Majumdar added.
Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya dismissed the allegation while defending the governor. “The entire education system of Bengal has already been destroyed by TMC. Its former education minister Partha Chatterjee, two legislators and top officials of the higher education department are in judicial custody as suspects in the school recruitment scam that federal agencies are probing. The governor is introducing people from other fields to stop this criminalisation of the education system,” Bhattacharya said.
