Kolkata: In a serious setback for the federal government of West Bengal, the Supreme Courtroom (SC) Tuesday refused to intrude with a Calcutta Excessive Courtroom order which had declared the reappointment of Calcutta College Vice-Chancellor Sonali Chakravarti Bandopadhyay — spouse of a former prime IAS officer who was seen to have snubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi — as “legally void”.
Sonali, the primary lady V-C of Calcutta College, is daughter of eminent Bengali poet Nirendranath Chakravarti. She can be the spouse of former West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay who’s at present the chief advisor to CM Mamata Banerjee.
The previous IAS officer was within the midst of a centre-state tussle final 12 months after he didn’t obtain the Prime Minister at Kalaikunda air base throughout his go to for a evaluation assembly following Cyclone Yaas in Might, 2021. Nor did he attend the assembly. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accompanied by Bandopadhyay, had submitted a file to the PM and left the assembly venue.
He was recalled from the state on the identical day however the Mamata Banerjee authorities had refused to launch the 1987-batch officer who retired on 31 Might, he was then appointed principal advisor to the chief minister.
The previous IAS officer can be at present preventing a authorized battle in opposition to the Division of Personnel and Coaching (DoPT), which final 12 months accused him of indulging in conduct “unbecoming of an IAS officer”, for lacking the evaluation assembly with the Prime Minister.
In the meantime, on 27 August final 12 months, the Mamata Banerjee authorities re-appointed Sonali the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta College and issued a notification to that impact. The reappointment got here the identical day her earlier tenure as Calcutta College V-C was ending.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Courtroom bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli got here down closely on the Authorities of West Bengal over Sonali’s reappointment.
It additionally referred to a letter dated 17 August, 2021, by then West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, the place he had written to the CM, “I want to point right here that with out being a participant in choice, and consequent choice, an incumbent Vice-Chancellor can’t get one other time period in view of part 8(2)(a) of the Calcutta College Act, 1979.”
With the Supreme Courtroom refusing to intrude within the Calcutta Excessive Courtroom order overturning her reappointment, Sonali now appears to be like set to lose her put up as Calcutta College Vice Chancellor.
ThePrint reached Sonali over calls, textual content and WhatsApp, however obtain no response until the time of publication of this report. ThePrint additionally reached Schooling Minister Bratya Basu ove phone, textual content message and e-mail, however acquired no response. An e-mail was despatched by ThePrint to Manish Jain, principal secretary, West Bengal Schooling Division, however no response was acquired until the time of publication of this text.
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‘Loopholes’ in Sonali’s reappointment
In February this 12 months, Anindya Sundar Das, an advocate and alumnus of Calcutta College, moved the Calcutta Excessive Courtroom in opposition to Sonali’s reappointment.
“The Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta College’s reappointment was performed with out following the due course of and eligibility standards. The Calcutta Excessive Courtroom heard my PIL and in its order requested the V-C to step down instantly. She needed to stop work instantly and right this moment the Supreme Courtroom additionally upheld the HC order. She should step down”, Das informed ThePrint.
In an order dated 13 September, 2021, the Calcutta HC had overturned Sonali’s reappointment because the Calcutta College Vice-Chancellor, with a bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj holding the reappointment to be not in accordance with the legislation.
The SC in its order Tuesday, additionally held that “The State authorities selected the inaccurate path below Part 60 by misusing the “elimination of issue clause” to usurp the ability of the Chancellor to make the appointment. A authorities can’t misuse the “elimination of issue clause” to take away all obstacles in its path which come up as a result of statutory restrictions. Permitting such actions could be antithetical to the rule of legislation”.
Part 60 of the Calcutta College Act of 1979 refers to a situation the place there are difficulties in giving impact to the provisions of the Act “on account of any lacunae or omission” in its provisions or for another cause in any respect.
In response to the Part, in such circumstances, the State authorities is empowered to do something which seems to it to be needed for eradicating the issue, however something on the contrary contained elsewhere within the Act or another legislation.
A Vice-Chancellor of a prime college below the West Bengal authorities informed ThePrint on situation of anonymity, “Within the case of an appointment of a Vice-Chancellor, one, it requires a signature of the Chancellor and two, it must observe pointers of the UGC. My studying of the SC order, which clearly says how Part 60 of the Calcutta College Act 1979 was misused by the West Bengal authorities, is that each one V-Cs must go like Sonali.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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