‘Student council polls can’t be held until permanent V-Cs are appointed’

Kolkata: The Bengal government on Tuesday informed Calcutta High Court that it is legally not possible to hold student council elections in state-run colleges until permanent vice-chancellors (V-Cs) are appointed.

The Division Bench of Calcutta High Court was hearing a case filed by a Presidency University student demanding elections in state colleges.

The advocate representing the petitioner submitted that no elections have been held in over 500 colleges in the state since 2017. The matter was heard by the Division Bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya.

The Bench observed that an identical matter was raised earlier in which a time frame was given to the respondents to submit a report on it. The case was about conducting periodic elections in colleges.

The State Advocate General referred to the report submitted earlier and said that there is some difficulty in holding elections right now because the vice-chancellor nominee has to be there in three committees. He further stated that the issue of the selection of V-Cs is currently going on before the Supreme Court.

The Apex Court had recently stated that it would constitute the search committee to appoint permanent V-Cs.

As directed by the Apex Court, the state government, Governor and UGC submitted the list of recommended names for the search committee. The matter is scheduled to be heard on

October 6.