A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the high court on Monday challenging Governor CV Ananda Bose’s decision to appoint interim vicechancellors (VC) of 11 universities.
Dr Bose has also been made a party in the case. A retired professor has filed the case which is scheduled for hearing next week. Dr Bose in his capacity as a chancellor of universities in the state had started appointing interim VCs to all varsities where the vacancies in the VC posts exist.
Last week, he had appointed interim VC s in 11 varsities including Calcutta, Jadavpur and Burdwan without discussing the issue with the state education department headed by its minister Bratya Basu.
Raj Bhaban sources felt that the appointment of the 11 VCs on an interim basis on Thursday had cleared the ‘stalemate situation’ in appointment of heads of 27 varsities across the state. Reacting to the Governor’s move Mr Basu had stated on Thursday that the Raj Bhavan’s decision was ‘unilateral’ and ‘violates the law’.
Mr Basu had also hinted to take legal advice on how to fight against the move by the Raj Bhaban. In a press statement issued by Raj Bhaban earlier had stated, “The minister of education recommended blanket extension of all the interim vice-chancellors.
The chancellor has extended the services of only those VCs who complied with instructions to send activity reports to the Chancellery for review.” Before taking such a drastic move the Governor had sat in on a meeting on Wednesday to select names of interim VCs of the 11 varsities.