The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ruled there was no illegality in the orders issued by the Chancellor in appointment of Vice-Chancellors to 11 State-run universities in West Bengal.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta dismissed a writ petition which claimed that the appointment of Vice-Chancellors was illegal as the Higher Education department was not consulted by Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, who is also Chancellor of all State universities, before making such appointments.
The Division Bench observed that the petitioner had miserably failed to point out what was the public interest in the petition. The court said the State of West Bengal which did not raise any objections to the orders passed by the Chancellor earlier was outrightly supporting the cause of the petitioner and virtually stepped into his shoes. The Chief Justice said the court was justified in forming an opinion that the writ petitioner was used as a tool to indirectly challenge the orders passed by the Chancellor.
A few weeks ago the Governor had appointed interim Vice-Chancellors to 11 universities, University of Calcutta, University of Kalyani and Jadavpur University.
The development has far-reaching consequences as the State government had not only raised objections to these appointments but also urged the appointees not to join as Vice-Chancellors. The State government has also pointed out that if the academicians joined as Vice-Chancellors, who will pay their salaries?
Holds meet with V-Cs
During the day, the Governor held a meeting with the Vice-Chancellors of 10 universities at the North Bengal University in Siliguri and emphasised that with the support of the State government the universities should strive to make West Bengal the educational hub of the country
The Governor said his first objective was to bring about qualitative improvement in university education. “Our first objective is the qualitative improvement of university education in Bengal. Universities in Bengal should be the best in the nation,” Dr. Bose said
Earlier in the day, the Governor was shown black flags by activists of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of the Trinamool Congress, when his convoy was entering the campus of the University of North Bengal in Siliguri.
