The Supreme Court today directed West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose, who is also the chancellor of state-run universities, to appoint six suitable persons as vice-chancellors from a list of candidates given by the Mamata Banerjee led state government.
Appearing for the chancellor, Attorney General R Venkataramani apprised the top court that he has approved six names from the list sent by the Mamata Banerjee government. The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice K V Vishwanathan said that the six vice-chancellors should be appointed immediately.
Furthermore, it also asked the state government to send a fresh list of suitable candidates to the office of the chancellor, who may decide to appoint some more VCs from among them. While hoping for an amicable solution to the ongoing tussle, the bench said it may consider setting up a search committee later for short-listing candidates for being appointed as vice-chancellors in the remaining state-run universities.
Earlier, the bench had asked the governor, the state government and the University Grants Commission (UGC) to suggest three to five names each for setting up a search-cum-selection committee which will decide the candidates for appointment as VCs.
During the hearing today, the attorney general told the bench that the chancellor has approved six names for appointment as VCs from the list forwarded by the state government.
He further vehemently opposed the submissions of Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the state government, that the governor was deliberately not consenting to the Bill on universities passed by the state assembly.
Notably, the West Bengal Assembly had passed an amendment bill raising the number of members in the search committee set up for appointing vice-chancellors in state-run universities from three to five. However, the BJP had opposed the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023 alleging that the new search committee would further enhance the ruling party’s control over the appointment of vice-chancellors.
The bench has now scheduled the plea for hearing on April 30.