Kolkata: The West Bengal government has issued an ordinance paving the way for setting up search committees for appointment of Vice Chancellors in 30 state-run universities where the tenure of existing VCs are set to expire by next month, officials said on Tuesday.
The ordinance, which has been approved by Governor C V Ananda Bose, specified that the 5-member committee will have nominees "of the Chancellor, Chief Minister, UGC Chairman, education department, state higher education council".
The ordinance had to be brought to include a representative of the UGC in line with an order of the Supreme Court in October 2022 and subsequent orders of the Calcutta high court, state education department officials here said. The case related to the re-appointment of a vice chancellor of Calcutta University. The court's orders implied that all VCs appointed by committees which did not have an UGC representative were invalid.
West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose in March 2023, had given interim appointments to VCs of 30 state universities, including Jadavpur University, for three months to avoid disruption of academic activities.
Officials said the process of forming search committee was notified through an ordinance on Sunday in line with the decision taken by the state government and the governor.
Reacting to the development, West Bengal Education minister Bratya Basu tweeted "as directed by Hon'ble Supreme Court we have included one UGC nominee in the panel. So it brings up the total number of committee members to four.
"Since keeping the number at four will invite the possibility of split vote during voting on crucial issues, we have raised the number to five - inducting another nominee from state higher secondary education council ... these decisions are in conformity with the UGC guideline."
The minister added, instead of having a representative of an university's 'court' or senate, "we have decided to keep a nominee from the chief minister's office."
This last decision however, has not gone down well with teachers' associations in various univesities in the state.
Nine university professors' bodies - including the All Bengal University Teachers' Association (ABUTA), Calcutta University Teachers Association, Jadavpur University Teachers Association, Rabindra Bharatri University Teachers Association, West Bengal State University Teachers Association, said "the ordinance issued by the state on the formation of search committee for selection of VC is nothing but a blueprint for imposing total government or political control over universities."
"The five members of the search committee will comprise persons nominated by the Centre and state. That means, in selection of a VC there will be no say of the Senate or Court of the concerned university," ABUTA Vice-President Tarun Naskar told PTI.
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