West Bengal Govt, Governor Agree On 8 VC Appointments; Supreme Court Leaves Rest To Justice Lalit Committee
In the matter pertaining to the appointment of Vice Chancellors for West Bengal Universities, the State government and the Governor recently agreed on the recommendations of 6 more candidates as VCs.
A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was informed of the development by Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta (for West Bengal government) and Attorney General R Venkataramani (for Governor).
The 8 universities in relation to which consensus was reached between the State Chief Minister and the Governor were: Sanskrit College & University, Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University, Harichand Guruchand University, Raiganj University, Diamond Harbour Women's University, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University, Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalay University, and West Bengal State University.
Accordingly, the Court asked CM Mamata Banerjee to forward the names of the agreed-upon candidates to the Governor (the Chancellor) for issuance of notification of appointment.
Insofar as the remaining 3 Universities (North Bengal University, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology and Netaji Subhash Open University), the Court referred the matter back to the Search-cum-Selection Committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice UU Lalit, for consideration.
The parties had divergent opinions on the names recommended for these Universities, therefore, as they agreed, the matter was sent to the Committee, requesting that all material that may be furnished by the parties be thoroughly examined and a decision be endeavored to be taken in 4 weeks.
"Upon consideration of the materials by the Search-cum-Selection Committee headed by Hon'ble Mr. Justice U. U. Lalit, we leave it to the discretion of that Committee to (i) recommend a fresh panel from among the existing candidates; or (ii) initiate a fresh selection process", the Court said.
To recap, the matter pertains to the appointment of Vice-Chancellors in 36 Universities in the State of West Bengal. Through the Court's intervention, and upon appointment of Justice UU Lalit Committee, the deadlock between the State CM and the Governor was resolved qua 25 Universities in phases and names of candidates finalized. The issue remained to be resolved qua 11 Universities. Now, 8 more names have been cleared and the issue regarding 3 remaining Universities shall be endeavored to be resolved by Justice UU Lalit's Committee.
Case Title: State of West Bengal v. Dr. Sanat Kumar Ghosh & Ors. | Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 17403 of 2023