Calcutta High Court today held that the appointments of vice-chancellors in 11 state universities made by Governor CV Ananda Bose, who is also the chancellor, were valid. It thus dismissed the state government’s petition, which contended that the appointments of VCs in 11 state universities by the chancellor of the state universities were illegal and unconstitutional since those were made sans the consent of the state education department. In the same vein, the Division Bench of chief justice TS Sivagnanam also asked the state government to start disbursal of allowance to the 10 VCs, which had been stalled by the state government, with immediate effect.
Earlier, the alleged appointments of 10 vice-chancellors in about 11 state-run universities on an interim basis by the governor and chancellor had run into rough weather after the state education minister Bratya Basu, taking exception to the appointments, alleged that the decision was taken without any consultation with the state education department. He also agued since the appointments were illegal and unconstitutional, the state education department had decided to stop disbursal of the salaries and honorarium of those appointees.