Kolkata: In a major setback to the West Bengal government, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday refused to interfere with the Calcutta High Court order that announced the reappointment of Calcutta University Vice Chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Bandyopadhyay – a former top IAS. The officer’s wife whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen as “legally void”.
Sonali, the first woman vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, is the daughter of noted Bengali poet Nirendranath Chakraborty. She is also the wife of former West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay who is currently Chief Advisor to CM Mamata Banerjee.
The former IAS officer was at the center-state tussle after not receiving the prime minister at the Kalaikunda airport last year. review meeting After Cyclone Yas in May 2021. Nor did he attend the meeting. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee along with Bandopadhyay handed over a file to the PM and left the meeting place.
it was Remembered that from the state the same day, but the Mamata Banerjee government had refused to release the 1987-batch officer, who was appointed principal advisor to the chief minister, who retired on May 31.
The former IAS officer is also currently fighting a legal battle against the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which last year Guilty Accused of indulging in “indecent behavior of an IAS officer” for being absent in the review meeting with the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, on August 27 last year, the Mamata Banerjee government re-appointed Sonali as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta and issued a notification to this effect. The reappointment took place on the same day that his previous term as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta was ending.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli strongly targeted the West Bengal government regarding the reappointment of Sonali.
It also referred to a letter dated August 17, 2021 by Jagdeep Dhankhar, the then Governor of West Bengal, in which he had written to the CM, “I need to point out here that without participating in the selection and resultant selection, a Incumbent Vice- Chancellor cannot get a second term in view of Section 8(2)(a) of the Calcutta University Act, 1979.
With the Supreme Court refusing to interfere with the Calcutta High Court order quashing her reappointment, Sonali is now set to lose her post as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta.
ThePrint reached out to Sonali over call, text and WhatsApp, but did not receive any response till the time of publication of this report. ThePrint also reached out to Education Minister Bratya Basu via telephone, text message and email, but did not get revert. An email was sent by ThePrint to Manish Jain, Principal Secretary, West Bengal Education Department, but no response had been received till the time of publication of this article.
read also, Not buying peace, not driving a nail – the real reason behind Mamata’s ‘clean chit’ to Modi
‘Faults’ in Sonali’s reappointment
In February this year, Anindya Sundar Das, a lawyer and alumnus of Calcutta University, moved the Calcutta High Court against Sonali’s reappointment.
“The re-appointment of the Calcutta University vice-chancellor was done without following the due process and eligibility criteria. The Calcutta High Court heard my PIL and in its order asked the VC to step down immediately. He had to stop the work immediately and today the Supreme Court also upheld the HC order. He should step down”, Das told ThePrint.
In an order dated September 13, 2021, the Calcutta HC had reversed Sonali’s reappointment as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta, with a bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj not considering the reappointment as in accordance with law.
The Supreme Court in its order on Tuesday also observed that “the State Government chose the wrong path under Section 60 by abusing the “removal of hardship clause” to usurp the power of the Chancellor to make appointments. Cannot abuse the “removal of difficulty” clause to remove all obstacles that may arise. It would be against the rule of law to allow such actions.”
Section 60 of the Calcutta University Act of 1979 refers to a scenario where there are difficulties in giving effect to the provisions of the Act “by reason of any deficiency or omission” or for any other reason.
According to the section, in such cases, the State Government is empowered to do anything which appears to it to be necessary for removing the difficulty, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in the Act or any other law.
The vice-chancellor of an apex university under the West Bengal government told ThePrint on condition of anonymity, “In case of appointment of a vice-chancellor, one, it requires the signature of the chancellor and two, it needs to follow the guidelines. it occurs. of UGC. My reading of the Supreme Court order, which clearly says how Section 60 of the Calcutta University Act 1979 was misused by the Government of West Bengal, is that all V-Cs have to go like Sonali. ,
(Edited by Polomi Banerjee)
read also, Calcutta High Court declares Mamata Banerjee’s pet project ‘Dua Ration’ illegal