CM will appoint vice-chancellors, observes Supreme Court; former CJI UU Lalit to head search committee

In a big win for the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, the Supreme Court on Monday over the appointment of Vice Chancellors in the state-run universities. The Chief Minister was given the right to choose the Vice Chancellor of the University instead of the Governor.

Education minister Bratya Basu shared the news on X. He wrote, "Hon'ble Supreme Court in today's order has upheld the contention of the State Government regarding the constitutionality of appointing Vice Chancellors by the Governor instead of the democratically elected Head of the State. In today's order, the Hon'ble Bench has instructed the Search cum Selection Committee, to be headed by ex CJI Justice(Retd) U.U.Lalit, to recommend a panel of 3 names alphabetically for each University to the Hon'ble Chief Minister. The Hon'ble Chief Minister will then recommend the panel according to HER PREFERENCE to the Chancellor, recording her opinion, if any, against any name. The Chancellor will then appoint the VC. #Democracy wins again"

The Supreme Court has appointed former Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit to head a committee to oversee the appointments of Vice-Chancellors for public universities in West Bengal. A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan passed the order and posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks.

The West Bengal government and Governor CV Ananda Bose have been locked in a dispute over who gets the final say and supervision role over such appointments. However, this loggerhead was running since current Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar's tenure as the Governor of West Bengal.