At least 11 former V-Cs send defamation notice to Chancellor
Kolkata: About eleven former vice-chancellors (V-Cs) of state universities have sent a defamation notice to Raj Bhavan demanding that the Chancellor, C V Ananda Bose, who is also the state’s Governor, retract his recent statements which have allegedly maligned their reputations.
The Educationists’ Forum, West Bengal on Thursday made the announcement during a press conference. The statement issued by Forum cited names of about 11 former V-Cs who have sent defamation notices to the Chancellor. A member of the Forum and the former V-C of North Bengal University, Om Prakash Mishra, clarified that the defamation notice was served to the Chancellor and not the Governor since the latter enjoys immunity but the former does not.
The main bone of contention which led to the present decision is a recent statement by the Chancellor where he is learnt to have alleged that the V-Cs initially appointed by the state government were either corrupt, accused of harassing female students, or were only interested in “political games”.
He had further alleged five interim V-Cs appointed by him had to recently resign out of fear and have told him that they were being given life threats, intimidated by the state education department, and even pressured by IAS officers.
A statement issued by the Forum read: “The distasteful comments and accusations of the Chancellor without any specific charge and evidence to back his unfounded accusations have harmed the reputations of the eminent scholars and administrators.”
They are also of the opinion that the V-Cs concerned did not resign in fear but were removed by the Chancellor. “Hon’ble Chancellor has been caught lying and manipulating facts about the resignations of few of his appointees. Everyone knows that he removed some of them…” the statement read.
On the recent ‘Speed Committee’ formed by Bose, the Forum said: “The Chancellor has no power to constitute committees for administering all the universities. There is no legal validity for the Speed Committee, Monitoring Committee etc which the Chancellor is routinely announcing.”
The legal notices demanded retraction, apology and damages of Rs 50 lakh from the Chancellor or else he would face civil and criminal charges under applicable provisions of law.
