– Mita Mukherjee
The Supreme Court on Monday approved the appointment of vice-chancellors at eight state-aided universities in West Bengal after being informed that both Governor C.V. Ananda Bose—who is also the chancellor of the universities—and the Mamata Banerjee government had no objections to the proposed names.
The consensus on the eight appointments was confirmed during the hearing. Attorney-General R. Venkataramani represented the governor, while senior advocate Jaideep Gupta appeared for the state government.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi heard the case and indicated that the issue of appointing vice-chancellors for the remaining five universities would be taken up in chambers. Sources said differences persisted over these five posts.
The court will review the five names with the Attorney-General and advocate Gupta to finalise the appointments.
According to sources, the state government and the governor have reached a consensus on the appointment of vice-chancellors for Jadavpur University, Raiganj University, North Bengal University, Calcutta University, Biswa Bangla University, Sadhu Ram Chand Murmu University, Kazi Nazrul University, and Gour Banga University. The names of the selected candidates are likely to be announced soon, the sources added.
During the hearing, Gupta told the bench that both the state government and the chancellor had reached “more or less unanimity” on the names for seven to eight universities. Later, the Attorney-General confirmed that the governor had no objection to at least eight names and agreed to proceed with the appointment process.
Regarding the remaining five names, the bench said it would attempt to understand any misgivings in chambers.
Justice Kant observed during the hearing: “Let us not discuss the candidates in open court. For now, wherever there is agreement, let us proceed with the appointments on which the learned chancellor has concurred with the committee’s recommendations.”
In July 2024, the Supreme Court had constituted a Search-cum-Selection Committee headed by former Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit for all state universities in Bengal, to break the deadlock over the appointment of vice-chancellors.
The Bengal government and certain PIL petitioners had earlier challenged a Calcutta High Court order that upheld the interim VC appointments made by the governor. As many as 34 universities had been affected by the dispute.
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