Mita Mukherjee

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the constitution of a search cum selection committee to resolve a long standing tussle between the West Bengal government and governor C V Ananda Bose over appointment of vice-chancellors in state-aided universities.

A bench of justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan said in the order that the committee which will have to be constituted within two weeks will be headed by former Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit (chairperson). The Chairperson will preside over every such search cum selection committee which will consist of five members.

The search panel will prepare a list of three names for each university for appointment of vice-chancellors not in order of merit but alphabetically.

According to the order, the recommendations of the committee, duly endorsed by the chairperson shall be presented to the chief minister. If the chief minister finds any candidate unsuitable, the supporting material and remarks will be forwarded to the chancellor (governor) in two weeks.   

The order states that the chief minister shall also be entitled to recommend the shortlisted names in order of preference to the chancellor. The chancellor will appoint the vice-chancellors out of empanelled names in the same order of preference as recommended by the chief minister.  If the chancellor has any reservations about the empanelled names or the remarks of the chief minister against any of the candidates, he shall be entitled to put his own remarks on file stating the reasons with supporting material.

If the chancellor approves the names, the state government will have to notify the appointment within a week of receipt of the chancellor’s approval.

The top court also made it clear that it would make the final decision in case if one party opposes the shortlisted names and the other party does not accept the objections.

The court directed that the entire process of appointment will have to be completed within three months.

The Mamata Banerjee – led government in Bengal and state governor C V Ananda Bose have been locked in a dispute for a long time over the issue of who has the final say over appointments of vice-chancellors in state-aided universities and who is entitled to supervise the process of appointments.

Welcoming the order, Bengal education minister Bratya Basu stated on his X handle: “ Hon’ble Supreme Court in today’s order has upheld the contention of the State Government regarding the constitutionality of appointing Vice-Chancellors by the Governor instead of the democratically elected Head of the State. In today’s order, the Hon’ble Bench has instructed the Search cum Selection Committee, to be headed by ex CJI Justice (Retd) U.U.lalit, to recommend a panel of 3 names alphabetically for each University to the Hon’ble Chief Minister. The Hon’ble Chief Minister will then recommend the panel according to HER PREFERENCE to the Chancellor, recording her opinion, if any, against any name. The Chancellor will then appoint the VC.”

 The bench today was hearing a petition filed by the Bengal government challenging a judgment of Calcutta High Court that had upheld the appointments of interim vice-chancellors in 13 state-funded universities made by governor Bose.

Also read: SC instructs Bengal governor to appoint 6 VCs from state government’s list