Simmering tension between the Bengal Governor Dr. CV Ananda Bose and the Mamata Banerjee Government spilled over into the public domain hours after the Governor’s office issued a list appointing interim VCs in 11 state universities. West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu tweeted that the Raj Bhavan’s decision is “unilateral” and “violates the law”. The minister urged the “illegally appointed VCs to reject the appointment”.
Taking exception to the governor’s move, Basu said in the tweet: “We have come to know from the media that the governor has appointed VCs in state-aided universities today without holding any consultation with the department (higher education), and this goes against well-established norms in appointing VCs and violates the law.” The minister also said his department was “taking legal advice for future steps in such an unprecedented situation”.
Calcutta, Jadavpur, and Burdwan universities are among the 11 state universities where interim VCs have been appointed by the Governor. Clearing the “deadlock” in the appointment of interim vice chancellors to 27 universities, Governor Dr. CV Ananda Bose, in his capacity as Chancellor of Universities, has started appointing interim VCs to all the universities where the vacancies exist, a Raj Bhavan statement said. In an apparent response to Basu’s tweet in Bengali, the Governor said, “Raj Bhavan clarifies that the consultation in the matter of the appointment of interim vice chancellors or authorising someone to perform the functions of interim vice chancellor has been done.”
The statement also said that the Chancellor seems to “have applied his middle-path approach” in the appointment of VCs too. A letter signed by Governor Bose and addressed to Amitava Dutta, pro-VC of Jadavpur University, which was seen by this newspaper says: “Upon the authority vested in the Chancellor by the statute and in deference to the orders issued by the Calcutta High Court, Prof. Amitabha Dutta, the pro-VC of Jadavpur University, is authorised to exercise the power and perform the duties of the Vice-Chancellor for Jadavpur University till further orders.”
An official in the State Education Department said Minister Basu was referring to the West Bengal State Universities (Terms and Conditions of Service of the Vice Chancellor and the Manner and Procedure of Official Communication) Rules 2019 when he described the Governor’s decision to appoint interim VCs as “illegal”.
“The rules related to nominating a person to anybody, authority, or committee of any university state that the Education Minister will suggest at least three names for each nomination. The Chancellor will select one of the names suggested by the Minister and convey the decision to the Minister,” the official said. The official said that as long as the rules are in force, the Chancellor is bound to consult the Minister for appointing Vice-Chancellors.
“In April, the Chancellor asked all VCs to send him weekly activity reports on the last day of every week. The rules framed in 2019 mandate that VCs cannot communicate with the Chancellor directly. All communications to the Chancellor have to be routed through the Education Department. Now, while appointing interim VCs, the Chancellor is again acting in violation of rules,” the official said.