Mita Mukherjee
A public interest litigation (PIL) petition challenging West Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose’s decision to appoint interim vice-chancellors at 10 state-aided universities without the concurrence of the state higher education department was rejected by the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday.
Delivering the order Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam said that there is “no illegality” in the governor’s order.
Dismissing the petition, the Chief Justice held that the 10 incumbent interim vice-chancellors should be entitled to “draw pay and allowances according to the posts.”
The petitioners had alleged that the governor, who is also the chancellor of all state-aided universities, had appointed the interim VCs without any consultation with the education department which is statutorily required. The state government had also said that since the appointment of the 10 interim VCs was “illegal,” the state government will not be able to pay salaries to them according to the post.
The court observed today that the decision taken by the governor is “justified” as the powers of governor regarding appointments of VCs of state-aided universities are clearly laid down in the relevant acts.
The Chief Justice said the petitioner had failed to explain the public interest in this matter and the state, who had not opposed the appointment made by the governor, stepped into the shoes of the petitioner.
The PIL had been filed by a retired college teacher who had made the governor and the state party to the petition.
Bengal education minister Bratya Basu had described the appointments as “illegal” because the governor had appointed the interim vice-chancellors without consulting the state higher education department.
The court said that the state government had not given a panel of candidates to the governor but forwarded a list of definite names to him from where the governor selected two. The state had not mentioned that the list was tentative and as per the provisions the governor had the right to reject names he doesn’t think are not appropriate for the post.
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Posted in News, States
