WB VC Appointment: Supreme Court Prepones Hearing to September 22
SC asks WB Governor and State Government to respond to Search Committee’s unanimous Vice-Chancellor recommendations
The Supreme Court on Monday advanced the hearing in the ongoing dispute over the appointment of Vice Chancellors in West Bengal universities to September 22, after Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta requested an earlier date.
The matter was mentioned before a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi.
Gupta informed the Court that the case was currently listed for September 26 but noted that former Chief Justice U.U. Lalit’s report, submitted in connection with the matter, was already with the Registry. He urged that the hearing be brought forward so that directions could be issued.
Taking note of the submission, the Bench passed an order stating: “On joint request, next date of hearing is preponed and same is listed on 22 September.”
The dispute over Vice Chancellors’ appointments has seen a prolonged tussle between the West Bengal Government and the office of the Governor, who is Chancellor of State universities.
The Supreme Court has previously directed both sides to work towards a resolution and had also sought the assistance of Justice (Retd.) U.U. Lalit in exploring a framework to settle the issues.
The case has wide implications for higher education governance in West Bengal, with the fate of several university appointments hanging in balance amid the continuing standoff between the Raj Bhavan and the State.
With the matter now advanced, the Court is expected to take up Justice Lalit’s report and chart out the future course of action when it hears the case on September 22.
It is to be noted that the Supreme Court in January 2025 had granted more time to West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose in order to finalise the appointment process for vice-chancellors in the state's universities.
On 9 December, 2024 the Supreme Court was told that the West Bengal Governor had appointed full-term vice-chancellors for six universities and five more would be cleared soon.
Previously in November 2024, the Apex Court had refused to intervene in appointing vice-chancellors at West Bengal universities, following a report that the committee led by former Justice U.U. Lalit had already submitted its recommendations to the West Bengal Chief Minister.
In July 2024, the Supreme Court had appointed former Chief Justice of India U U Lalit as chairman of the Search-cum-Selection Committees for appointment of Vice Chancellors in all state universities in West Bengal following a "rift" between the TMC government and the Governor, leading to "chaos" in such institutions.
The Court had also nominated eminent educationists, scientists, jurists, subject experts and administrators etc for the purpose of empanelment on the committee. It invoked its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice in this matter and passed the common order for constitution of Search-cum-Selection Committee for all the subject Universities.
Earlier, in March 2023, a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court had quashed the appointment of Vice Chancellors in 29 state-run universities. It was also claimed that the state government had appointed or reappointed VCs of 24 state universities as well as extended the tenure of vice-chancellors without following the prescribed norms of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Case Title: State of West Bengal v. Dr. Sanat Kumar Ghosh