The Supreme Court on Friday ended the dispute between the West Bengal government and the state governor by finalizing the vice chancellors of three of the 36 universities that had become a bone of contention between the chancellor and then governor CV Anand Bose and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Supreme Court gave its stamp of approval to the three names among a panel prepared by the court-appointed Search and Selection Committee headed by former Chief Justice of India YU Lalit. With this, the Supreme Court brought the curtain down on the 30-month-long legal battle that required the court to intervene as disputes between constitutional officers adversely affected the functioning of universities.
The names of Professors Dupayan Bharadwaj and Rajan Chakrabarti from North Bengal University and Netaji Subhas Open University, respectively, have been finalized from the batch. The third name has not yet been revealed.
“With the above three appointments, all universities in West Bengal will have regular vice-chancellors,” a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalia Bagchi said.
Attorney General of India (AG) R Venkataramani, who represented the Governor throughout the proceedings, commented: “This brings to an end a two-and-a-half-year-long case involving 36 universities.”
The three universities – Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, North Bengal University and Netaji Subhas Open University – were the only ones to remain as the former prime minister and the former governor could not agree on a common name. As in the past when the Lalit bench helped the court recommend suitable venture capital funds for the other 33 universities, the court last year asked the search and selection committee, which also includes experts in the field, to suggest a panel of names. The committee’s report was opened in court. While the recommendation for one university was unanimous among the five-member panel, the Supreme Court followed the majority rule to select venture capital funds for the remaining two universities.
The court ordered the state government to send these names to the Chancellor for approval and to ensure that the appointment is implemented within four weeks.
The dispute over the appointment of VCs was taken to court after the state government filed a petition in 2023 challenging the action taken by the governor to sit on the names recommended by the state. The petition stated that the Governor is obligated to approve the first name on the committee recommended by the Prime Minister.
In July 2024, the Supreme Court formed the Justice Lalit Commission to end the impasse. A panel of experts from various fields was brought in to assist Justice Lalit in shortlisting the candidates on the basis of merit.
