About 5K students awarded degrees at JU convocation

Kolkata: After a night of uncertainty, the 66th Annual Convocation of Jadavpur University (JU) was held on Sunday where 5,000 students were awarded their degrees by the pro-vice-chancellor, who was handed over the power to do so by the vice-chancellor (VC) Buddhadeb Sau, after a last minute court meeting.

Chancellor C V Ananda Bose refused to attend the convocation. The University Grant Commission’s (UGC) chairman, Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, who although arrived in the city for the occasion, left without attending it.

At the court meeting, the members advised Sau to hand over the power of the awarding degrees to pro-V-C to avoid future legal complexity. Even though the degrees had V-C’s signature, officials said that in case of any complexities, fresh degrees can be issued and sent via postal services if need be.

Raj Bhavan sources said the Chancellor removed the interim V-C because he “violated the law and prosperities.” “Chancellor did not cancel the convocation, respecting the requests from the students. He has sought expert legal opinion on whether he can grant post facto approval to the convocation otherwise the degrees will become invalid. The Chancellor wants to avoid that,” Raj Bhavan sources said. As to whether Sau will continue as the authorised V-C of the varsity is unclear. However, on Sunday, during a press conference, state Higher Education minister Bratya Basu said, “The Supreme Court had clearly directed that no one can be appointed afresh or removed,” while adding, “According to SC order, no one has been removed.” On the other hand, Sau said he will act as per law.An enquiry committee will be constituted by Raj Bhavan to probe into the allegations levelled against V-C. Later on the same day, the Higher Education department sent a letter consenting to the conducting of convocation and authorised the V-C to conduct the ceremony.

While speaking with the media, Sau said: “I received two letters, one from the Chancellor and another from the Higher Education department. The department asked me to continue. I presented both the letters to the university’s highest governing body, court. They requested me to conduct the convocation as vice-chancellor. I kept their request.”

The students who received the degree were relieved considering the uncertainty over convocation that has been continuing for a while now. “I have come from Tripura. The entire night passed in a state of sleeplessness over whether we will get a degree or not. We are grateful to the JU authorities that they stood their ground and ensured that our future was not left hanging,” PhD holder Abhijit Das said.