Even as the new academic session begins, the West Bengal government and Raj Bhavan are at loggerheads over the appointment of Vice-Chancellors (VCs). At a time when universities are grappling with provisions of the new National Education Policy which mandates four-year undergraduate degree courses, none of the 31 State-run Universities in West Bengal has a full-time Vice-Chancellor. Over the past few months, Governor C.V. Ananda Bose has appointed more than a dozen people to officiate as VCs of state-run universities allegedly without holding any consultation with the State government. When Raj Bhavan announced the names of officiating VCs, the West Bengal government initially tried to discourage academics from taking up the posts. Later a public interest litigation was filed before the Calcutta High Court challenging these appointments. On June 28, the High Court dismissed the petition describing it as a ‘tool’ to challenge the orders of the Governor. The court, however, pointed out that the appointments were only an interim arrangement.
The West Bengal government and the Governor’s office has not had the best of relationships, but things took a turn for the worse in 2022 when Jagdeep Dhankhar was Governor. The State government appointed 24 Vice-Chancellors, reportedly without consulting the Governor, whose validity was challenged by a writ petition. The court ruled that UGC Regulations of 2018, which states that a UGC nominee has to be in the search committee for selection of VCs, will prevail.
After Governor Bose assumed office, he initially agreed to the Bengal government’s proposal of accepting the resignation of the VCs, and appointing them as interim VCs this March. In May, when the three-month term came to an end, the State government sent a proposal to the Governor with a list of 27 names to be appointed as interim VCs for a period of six months. The Governor picked only two names from the list, and appointed several officiating VCs without consulting the State government.
