Supreme Court Closes Case Over West Bengal VC Appointments, Approves Candidates For Remaining 3 Universities

After about 2.5 years, the Supreme Court today finally closed the matter pertaining to appointment of Vice Chancellors for Universities in West Bengal. The Court approved recommended candidates for the remaining 3 Universities and ordered that their appointments be made soon after the Governor's approval.

This order puts an end to the "marathon exercise", as the Court termed it, of appointing Vice-Chancellors to 36 Universities in the State of West Bengal. Due to a deadlock between the State government, headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and the State Governor (also the Chancellor), the Court had appointed a Search-cum-Selection Committee headed by former CJI UU Lalit. Pursuant to recommendations made by this Committee, names of candidates were cleared in a phased manner for appointment as Vice-Chancellor. Today, the Court closed the matter as Vice Chancellors for all the Universities stood appointed/approved.

A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard the matter.

In its order, it expressed appreciation for Justice UU Lalit's Committee, the State Governor (Chancellor), Attorney General R Venkataramani (for Governor), Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta (for West Bengal government), and the state authorities who "despite initial hiccups, cooperated fully" and "ensured that the appointments were made by an independent panel headed by a former CJI".

To recap, in January this year, after the Court was informed about the State government and the Governor's agreement on candidates' names for 8 more Universities, the issue remained pending with respect to 3 Universities - Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad University of Technology, North Bengal University and Netaji Subhash Open University.

During today's hearing, the bench noted the following from a report sent by Justice UU Lalit's Committee -

- Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad University of Technology: Committee had unanimously recommended a panel of 3 candidates with inter-se merit position. Therefore, candidate at place no.1 could be offered appointment, subject to verification and compliance with necessary formalities;

- North Bengal University: Justice UU Lalit (Chairperson of the Committee) alongwith one other Committee member had recommended a panel of 3 candidates. Two other Committee members had recommended a separate panel of 3 candidates. One other Committee member had recommended a different panel of 3 candidates. Among these recommendations, one candidate was placed at no.1 by Justice Lalit and the one member, while others had placed the candidate at rank 2/3. As the candidate figured in all 3 recommendations, he could be appointed, subject to verification and compliance with necessary formalities;

- Netaji Subhash Open University: Justice Lalit and 3 other Committee members had recommended one panel of 3 candidates, while another Committee member had recommended a separate panel of 3 candidates. As candidate placed at No.1 by Justice Lalit and 3 other members was recommended by a substantial majority, he could be appointed, subject to verification and compliance with necessary formalities.

Approving recommendations in the above terms, the bench directed that the State government place the relevant names before the Governor for necessary approval. It added that the appointments shall be made within 4 weeks of the date of approval by the Governor.

Case Title: State of West Bengal v. Dr. Sanat Kumar Ghosh & Ors. | Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 17403 of 2023