Directive from the Supreme Court ignored, full-term vice-chancellors' crisis lingers
Telegraph | 26 May 2025
Education minister Bratya Basu on Sunday said full-term vice-chancellors have not been appointed in many state-aided universities despite a directive from the Supreme Court.
The minister was speaking at a programme of the All Bengal Principals’ Council where he also said that grants to the government and aided colleges will be stalled by the bodies like the UGC.
“There is an attempt to dominate Bengal. In many of the state-aided universities, the names of the vice-chancellors have not been signed despite a directive from the Supreme Court. In many of the colleges which have assembled here, grants from the bodies like the UGC will be stalled,” the minister told a gathering of college principals in his address at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark.
“Whenever you (the principals) try to utilise the human resources, some sort of obstacles are created,” he said.
Out of the 34 state-aided universities, governor C.V. Ananda Bose, the ex-officio chancellor of the state universities, has signed on the names of the full-term vice-chancellors in 17 universities based on the panel of names recommended by a Supreme Court-appointed search committee. The names were set in order of preference by chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Attorney general R. Venkatramani on May 8 told the Supreme Court “there is a lack of consensus” between the governor and the chief minister over 17 names for the post of VCs.
Senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the Bengal government, complained that because of the governor’s refusal to agree with the names recommended by Mamata for VC posts, the universities were in limbo for several months.
Manas Kabi, the secretary of the All Bengal Principals’ Council, said: “It is true that the grant from the bodies like the UGC have been stalled in recent times. The colleges had started the four-year undergraduate programme from last year following the UGC’s advice. But the central body is not giving any money to improve the infrastructure.”
Calls and texts by Metro on Sunday to Sukanta Majumder, the Union education minister of state and BJP state president, failed to elicit any response.