Sau, who was “removed” from his post by Governor CV Ananda Bose, who is Chancellor of all state universities, and then reinstated by the Trinamool Congress government last month, has not been going to his office for the past one week after the university opened following the winter vacations.
Amid the impasse, the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) has decided to stage a sit-in on the campus on January 16, demanding immediate appointment of a full-term V-C. The association also wrote letters to the state Higher Education Department and Governor Bose, urging them to resolve the stalemate.
JUTA general secretary Partha Pratim Roy said, “This stalemate has to end. The confusion over whether the university has an interim V-C or not is hampering its day-to-day affairs. The appointments of guest faculty, payments of contractual employees, financial approval for projects, and examiner selection are stuck due to complications over the so-called removal of the interim V-C. As a result, the students are suffering.”
Roy informed that the Governor has agreed to meet them on Thursday evening to discuss ways to resolve the impasse. “We have decided to hold an hour-long sit-in demonstration on the campus on January 16, while sporting black badges. We will also take out a rally under the ‘Save JU’ banner demanding an end to the ongoing stalemate and appointment of a full-term V-C,” he said.
The All Bengal University Teachers’ Association (ABUTA), another teachers’ union at JU, has written a letter to President Droupadi Murmu and Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud seeking their intervention to end the impasse.
“The Governor is responsible for complicating the matter. At a time when there was a clear direction from the Supreme Court to maintain the status quo, the Governor removed Sau from his post. When the court said no new appointments could be made then why was the interim Vice-chancellor removed? Now in the V-C’s absence, all files are stuck as they require his signature for clearance. The Governor has to take responsibility for this stalemate. We wrote a letter today to the President and the Chief Justice of India seeking their intervention,” said ABUTA general secretary Goutam Maity.
The Indian Express reached out to state Education Minister Bratya Basu for comments but he did not respond to messages.
Interim V-C Sau had said in a press release on Monday (January 8), “Due to the ongoing legal and administrative confusion, caused by a series of communications, especially from the Chancellor’s office, vis-à-vis communications from the state government regarding the functioning of interim V-C, I prefer to wait for the Supreme Court’s decision (on the matter).”
He appealed to the Chancellor (Governor) and the state government to come forward and solve the impasse.
Anusreeta Sarkar, a third-year student in the Bengali department and a member of the Arts Faculty Students’ Union (AFSU), said, “There is confusion among the students whether the university has a V-C or not. The V-C was removed one day and reinstated later. Now he is not coming to the university. The students are in the dark about their future. We want both the state government and Raj Bhavan to end the deadlock.”
A member of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students’ Union (FETSU), said, “Things cannot go on like this. Students need to be assured that the institute has a functioning V-C. Therefore, all stakeholders must come together to save the institute.”
Governor Bose had appointed Sau as the interim V-C on August 17 last year amid a conflict with the state Higher Education Department over the appointment of officiating vice-chancellors of state-run universities.
In September last year, the state government moved the Supreme Court, challenging Bose’s decision to appoint officiating V-Cs without consulting the Higher Education Department.
In October, the SC took exception to Governor Bose’s “unilateral appointments” of interim V-Cs and restrained him from making more such appointments.
The apex court further asked both parties to maintain the status quo, meaning no new appointments could be made until the final orders on the matter. The bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta wondered why the Governor and the Chief Minister, both constitutional authorities, “could not sit across the table and settle the issue” as the court suggested during earlier hearings.
The matter is still pending before the court.
But on December 23, Bose issued Sau’s removal order as interim V-C on ‘disciplinary grounds’, a day before the annual convocation of the institution. Sau was “removed” after he went ahead to hold the convocation defying the Chancellor’s orders, sources had said.
However, hours after his removal, the Higher Education Department “reinstated” Sau and allowed the convocation to be held, citing the Supreme Court orders.
On January 4, the Chancellor’s office wrote to the pro-VC and the registrar of JU to ensure that Sau did not exercise “any unauthorised authority” in the university administration. A day later, the Education Department clarified that Sau could continue as officiating V-C.
Following the interim V-C’s statement that he was staying away from the university and waiting for further SC decision, a section of JU faculty asked him to either come to the office and sign important files or resign from his post.
Since then, there has been no communication from the interim V-C.