‘SC directs Chancellor to complete V-C appointment process in 21 state univs’
Kolkata: State Higher Education minister Bratya Basu on Tuesday stated that the Chancellor/Governor C V Ananda Bose was directed by the Supreme Court to complete the vice-chancellor (V-C) appointment process in 21 state universities. The Chancellor on Monday appointed three more V-Cs in state universities — Rani Rashmoni Green University, Harichand Guruchand University and Sadhu Ram Chand Murmu University.
“The Hon’ble Supreme Court today directed the Chancellor to complete the process of appointment of all the 21 V-Cs of the state-aided universities as directed by the Hon’ble Court. A compliance report in this direction is to be filed on Friday. In fact the counsel for the Chancellor requested not to record the direction appointment of 21 vice-chancellors in the order. All attempts for stalling the process were foiled by the Hon’ble bench today,” Basu wrote on his social media ‘X’ feed.A case is going on with regards to appointment of interim vice-chancellors in state universities. A Special Leave Petition was filed by the state challenging the Calcutta High Court’s judgement which upheld the interim V-C appointments made by Chancellor in 13 universities. On Monday, Asutosh Ghosh was appointed as the V-C of Rani Rashmoni Green University in Tarakeswar. He was given the dual responsibility as V-C of Harichand Guruchand University as well. Ghosh was one of the state nominees. Another person, Kallol Paul was appointed as V-C of Sadhu Ram Chand Murmu University in Jhargram.
In an earlier occasion, V-Cs were appointed for two other universities. Burdwan University professor Pabitra Chattopadhyay was appointed as the officiating V-C of Gour Banga University and Bhaskar Gupta was appointed as the officiating V-C at Jadavpur University.
Bench of Justice Surya Kant and K V Viswanathan on Tuesday heard the Special Leave Petition filed by the state challenging the order passed by Calcutta High Court with regards to the interim V-C appointments made by Bose in 13 state universities.
During an earlier hearing of the matter in March, Justice Kant observed: “We were expecting understanding and maturity from both sides since this is a question of educational institutions and the future careers of lakhs of students. Bengal has been a hub of quality education right from the time of Shantiniketan. We thought those standards, values and morals would
be observed by both sides and they would help us
solve this amicably.”