West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) government has said it was seeking legal opinion and will move the court over C V Ananda Bose’s move to appoint acting vice-chancellors (V-Cs) at 14 universities, where the posts were vacant.
Bose, who is chancellor of 31 state-run universities, issued circulars for the appointments on Sunday days after a circular from his office on August 31 said that the governor would be the acting V-C of the 14 institutions until the posts were filled. Some of the new acting V-Cs took charge on Monday.
State education minister Bratya Basu said the formation of the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc ahead of the 2024 national polls has influenced the governor’s actions. “The governor is not following the principles of the Constitution. He is taking all decisions arbitrarily. They are afraid of the INDIA alliance. They think it will put them in danger. We will seek legal opinion. We may move court,” Basu said.
Bose’s predecessor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, who was also at loggerheads with the TMC, refused assent last year to the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill that sought to make the chief minister chancellor of state universities.
{{/usCountry}}Bose’s predecessor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, who was also at loggerheads with the TMC, refused assent last year to the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill that sought to make the chief minister chancellor of state universities.
{{/usCountry}}Basu said Dhankhar was always open to discussions. “We had arguments on many legal issues but he would meet us and talk.” There was no immediate response from Bose’s office.
Retired Karnataka high court chief justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, who has been named as the acting V-C of Kolkata’s prestigious Presidency University, said his job is to ensure that everything runs smoothly. “Everybody should do their duty. Politics will only be taught [as a subject in the curriculum] but not practised [on campus],” he told journalists after taking charge. Mukherjee was earlier appointed as the acting V-C of Rabindra Bharati University.
Political scientist Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay said a V-C’s post cannot be left vacant for a long period. “It creates problems.”
Pabitra Sarkar, a former V-C of Rabindra Bharati University, said: “I don’t know if a governor can appoint people in this manner. There are rules.”
The services of 29 V-Cs were extended until May 31 after their tenures ended last year. The government has started the process of forming search committees to select their successors.
Differences between the government and the governor surfaced in June when Bose appointed 13 V-Cs without consultations. In July, tensions escalated when Bose appointed Mukherjee and M Wahab, a retired Indian Police Service officer from Kerala, as acting V-Cs.
The University Grants Commission rules stipulate that only eminent professors with administrative experience can be appointed as V-Cs.