The Supreme Court of India on Jan 8 granted more time to West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose for finalizing vice-chancellor appointments in state universities, following a prolonged rift with the TMC government. Amid positive developments, the court emphasized transparency and fairness in the process, assigning former CJI U.U. Lalit to oversee the Search Committees and resolve the ongoing controversy over 35 state university appointments. Earlier in November, the Supreme Court chose not to interfere in the appointment of vice-chancellors. This was after learning that a committee led by former Justice U.U. Lalit had already submitted its recommendations to the West Bengal Chief Minister-Mamata Banerjee.
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India gave more time to the West Bengal Governor, C.V. Ananda Bose, to complete the process of appointing vice-chancellors for universities in the state.
This decision came from a bench consisting of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Ujjal Bhuyan.
The Attorney General, R. Venkataramani, requested this extension, mentioning that there had been positive progress in the appointments.
On December 9, the Supreme Court had been informed that the Governor had appointed full-term vice-chancellors for six universities, and five more appointments were expected soon. Based on this update, the court had scheduled the next hearing for January 8.
Earlier in November, the Supreme Court chose not to interfere in the appointment of vice-chancellors. This was after learning that a committee led by former Justice U.U. Lalit had already submitted its recommendations to the West Bengal Chief Minister-Mamata Banerjee.
In July 2024, the Apex Court had appointed former Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit as the chairman of the Search-cum-Selection Committees for appointing vice-chancellors. This move was necessary due to a “rift” between the state’s TMC government and the Governor, which caused “chaos” in the functioning of universities.
The court also assigned experts, including eminent educationists, scientists, jurists, and administrators, to be part of the Search-cum-Selection Committees. To ensure justice and clarity in the appointments, the court used its special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution. It stated:
“We resolve to constitute Search-cum-Selection Committee(s) of the same composition so as to avoid any confusion, irrespective of the fact that the relevant provision of the Statute of the concerned University may contain slight variations. Our endeavour is to infuse transparency, independence, fairness, and impartiality so as to ensure that the persons possessing the highest level of competence and integrity and are capable of leading the University by example are shortlisted.”
Further clarifying its intentions, the bench added:
“We have further attempted to set out that nominees of the Chancellor, Chief Minister, UGC, State Government, the Higher Education Department of West Bengal the intervenors etc, are adequately represented.”
The court authorized the chairperson to create either separate or joint committees for one or more universities. It noted:
“The Chairperson is requested to nominate 4 persons out of the empaneled experts, whom he finds capable of short-listing suitable names for appointment as Vice-Chancellors. The Chairperson shall preside over every Search-cum-Selection Committee and thus, composition of each such Committee shall be five. The Search-cum-Selection Committee shall prepare a panel of at least 03 names (alphabetically and not in order of merit) for each University.”
The court directed the chairperson to form the committees promptly, preferably within two weeks, and asked the Search Committees to complete their task within three months.
“The recommendations made by the Search-cum-Selection Committee, duly endorsed by the Chairperson, shall be put up before the Chief Minister (and not the Minister-in-charge of a Department) for necessary consideration. In case the Chief Minister has reasons to believe that any shortlisted person is unsuitable for appointment as Vice-Chancellor, the remarks to this effect along with supporting material and the original record of the recommendation made by the Search-cum-Selection Committee, shall be put up before the learned Chancellor within two weeks. The Chief Minister shall be entitled to recommend the shortlisted names in order of preference for appointment as Vice-Chancellors,”
-the court stated.
The Chancellor must approve the appointment based on the Chief Minister’s recommendation within two weeks unless there are disagreements.
“The Chancellor shall accord his approval (save and except when there is a difference of opinion) within two weeks of receipt of file from the Chief Minister of the State,”
-the court ordered.
If there is any dispute between the Chief Minister and the Chancellor, it must be brought to the Supreme Court.
“We make it clear that a final decision in this regard shall be taken by this Court after giving reasonable opportunity of being heard to the objectors,”
-the bench said. It also requested a compliance report from the state government before the next hearing.
The appointments of vice-chancellors in 35 state universities have been a contentious issue.
“The rift between the State Government, on the one hand, and the Governor of West Bengal, who happens to be the Chancellor of subject Universities, on the other, is the root cause of stalemate in the appointment of regular Vice-Chancellors. To elaborate further, there is no consensus between the two sets of authorities in the matter of constitution and composition of Search Committees for shortlisting the candidates for appointment as Vice-Chancellors,”
-the court observed.
The situation worsened as many universities lacked regular vice-chancellors, and interim or ad-hoc appointments were not permitted.
“Regardless thereto, the Chancellor has assigned the powers of Vice-Chancellors to various persons — not necessarily all of them are academicians. The State of West Bengal has strongly protested against such a recourse,”
-the bench said.
In March 2023, the Calcutta High Court quashed the appointment of vice-chancellors in 29 state universities, noting that proper procedures were not followed. The plea mentioned:
“Vice-Chancellors have been appointed either by a Search Committee which was not properly constituted or without constituting any such Committee and some of them do not fulfil minimum eligibility criteria of 10 years experience as Professor in the University or 10 years experience in a reputed research and/or academic administrative organization as prescribed in the UGC Regulation.”
Case Title:
State of West Bengal v Dr Sanat Kumar Ghosh.
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