Kolkata, Aug 22 : A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday against West Bengal Governor C.V Ananda Bose appointing a new interim vice-chancellor for Jadavpur University (JU) amid the recent controversies over the ragging-death of a fresher on August 10.
The Governor has recently appointed a JU faculty member with the mathematics department Buddhadeb Sau as the interim vice-chancellor of the university.
Challenging the decision in his PIL, petitioner Dr Rajesh Das, a faculty member of Burdwan University in West Bengal, argued that there is no provision for appointment of an interim vice-chancellor as the norms laid down on this count by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
In his petition, Fas also argued that with the latest example of JU, the Governor had appointed interim vice-chancellors in as many as 13 state-universities. According to him, since the interim vice-chancellors do not have the power and authority like that of permanent vice-chancellors, how could interim vice-chancellors take important decisions about financial matters related to the state university concerned.
Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam observed that since a case in the matter of appointment of interim vice-chancellor for JU is heard at the Supreme Court, any hearing in the PILcan be heard by Calcutta High Court only after the case in the
apex court is finalised.
