Kolkata (West Bengal): In a significant development Calcutta High Court has ordered the removal of Calcutta University Vice Chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Bandopadhyay on the ground that her reappointment as the VC of the university on August 27, 2021 didn’t have the approval of Jagdeep Dhankhar - the then governor and the automatic chancellor of the university.
Reacting on a PIL the division bench comprising of Prakash Srivastava and Rajarshi Bharadwaj said that the procedure followed during the reappointment of Chakraborty was wrong and so she has cease to become the vice chancellor of the university from the time of the pronouncement of judgement. Interestingly enough Chakraborty is the wife of former chief secretary and presently the special advisor to the chief minister Alapan Bandopadhyay.
The incident dates back to 2011 when the tenure of Chakraborty was about to end, the state government had sent the proposal of her reappointment to the Dhankhar – the chancellor of the university but the governor kept the file on hold and sought for an explanation. On August 27, 2011- the last day of her tenure- the state government reappointed Chakraborty citing ‘Removal of Difficulty’ clause which was immediately chased by on Anindya Sundar Das.
The plaintiff had alleged that there is procedural problem in the reappointment of Chakraborty and the state government cannot unilaterally take the decision of reappointing the vice chancellor of any state-run university unless that is being approved by the chancellor. In this case as the governor hasn’t singed her reappointment so she cannot enjoy a second term.
During the hearing Advocate General SN Mukherjee appearing for the State argued that as per Calcutta University Act, appointment and re-appointment are different matters. "The Governor's power is not the same when a re-appointment is done. The state government and the search committee propose names and the Governor, in this case, has to accept the State's decision. The Governor may appoint the Vice-Chancellor in consultation with the University Senate and the respective minister," he said.
However, lawyer Bilbadal Bhattacharya, on behalf of the plaintiff Anindya Sundar Das, argued that according to the University Grants Commission Act, the Governor is the Chancellor of all the Universities in the state and hence has the power to appoint the Vice-Chancellor of the University lies with the Governor.
The case becomes even more interesting because Chakraborty’s husband Alapan Bandopadhyay- is known to be close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. On several occasions, she came out in full support of the former bureaucrat. It may be recalled that Mamata said he is an "honest" and "competent" officer a year ago when the bureaucrat's legal tussle with the Centre resulted in Bandopadhyay's premature retirement.
