E-Paper
Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee to helm search committee for selection of SPPU’s new V-C
Earlier this month, the state government appointed Deepak Kapur, additional chief secretary of the state, for the selection of the new VC of the SPPU
Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, in his capacity as the chancellor of universities, has appointed justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, former chief justice, Karnataka high court (HC), as the chair of the search committee constituted for the selection of the new vice-chancellor (VC) of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). Dr Abhay Karandikar, director, IIT Kanpur and Deepak Kapoor, additional chief secretary, Government of Maharashtra will be the other members of this search committee. For many months now, the formation of this search committee as well as the selection of the new VC of the SPPU has been pending.
Earlier this month, the state government appointed Deepak Kapur, additional chief secretary of the state, for the selection of the new VC of the SPPU. The issue of selection of the new VC not only of the SPPU but also other state universities has been pending for more than a year now. On May 17, the tenure of the then VC of the SPPU, professor Nitin Karmalkar, ended, with temporary charge being handed over to professor Karbhari Vishwanath Kale. The process of selection of the new VC has been delayed due to disagreement regarding the method of selection between Koshyari and the former Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. Whereas state higher education minister Chandrakant Patil has now clarified that the process of selection will be carried out soon.
In a similar vein, Koshyari has constituted search committees for the selection of the new VC of two other state universities, namely the University of Mumbai and Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University. Justice Yatindra Singh (retd.), former chief justice, Chhattisgarh HC, will chair the search committee for selection of the new VC of the University of Mumbai. Professor Pramod Kumar Jain, director IIT (BHU) Varanasi and Anand Limaye, additional chief secretary (home) will be the other members of this committee.
Whereas the search committee for the selection of the new VC of the Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University will be led by professor Pradeep Kumar Joshi, former chairman, Union Public Service Commission. Professor Gopabandhu Mishra, former VC, Shree Somnath Sanskrit University, Veraval, Gujarat and Vikas Chandra Rastogi, principal secretary, higher and technical education department, will be the other members of this committee.
The process of selection of the new VC of the SPPU was supposed to start eight months ago but due to lack of political will and complete ignorance, the process did not start. So, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed against the state government demanding that as per the 2016 University Act, the selection process be started immediately.
