The West Bengal assembly passed a bill on thirteenth June that makes the Chief Minister – and not the Governor – Chancellor of all nation universities in Bengal. BJP legislators protested however simply 40 votes had been polled in opposition to the bill and 183 have been in favour. The cross had formerly been cleared via the kingdom Cabinet in the backdrop of Governor Jadgeep Dhankhar’s clash with the kingdom government over appointments of vice-chancellors across universities.
The Bill will now want the Governor’s clearance, but he is constitutionally bound to act on the advice of the Cabinet. However, there have been cases where Governors in opposition-ruled states have sat on Bills for a long time and sent them to the President.
The Governor, with the aid of virtue of his position, is the Chancellor of all state-run universities.
State schooling minister Bratya Basu, after introducing The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in the House, stated there used to be “nothing wrong” with the chief minister taking over as the chancellor.
By law, the Governor is the Chancellor of 17 universities in the state, in accordance to the Bengal Raj Bhavan’s respectable website. Some of them are the University of Calcutta, Jadavpur University, University of Kalyani, Rabindra Bharati University, Vidyasagar University, the University of Burdwan and North Bengal University, amongst others.
In January this year, Mr Dhankhar alleged that Vice Chancellors of 25 kingdom universities in Bengal had been appointed except his consent.
“The state government needs to control everything. The selection to appoint the CM as Chancellor of universities is being taken to facilitate direct interference of the ruling birthday party in the state’s training system,” information employer PTI quoted BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul as alleging.
