Supreme Court clears deck for appointment of V-Cs to 8 State varsities in Bengal

The Supreme Court on Monday (October 6, 2025) cleared the appointment of Vice-Chancellors to eight State universities in West Bengal after noting that both Governor C.V. Ananda Bose and the State government had accepted the recommendations of an independent search-cum-selection committee headed by former Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi observed that there was “no impediment” to proceeding with the appointments in institutions including the University of Calcutta, Biswa Bangla University, Sadhu Ram Chand Murmu University of Jhargram, the University of Gour Banga, Kazi Nazrul University, Jadavpur University, Raiganj University, and the University of North Bengal. However, the Court clarified that appointments to universities where a lack of consensus persisted between the State government and the Governor would be considered separately in chamber proceedings.

The Court was hearing a petition filed by the State government challenging Governor Bose’s delay, in his capacity as the ex officio Chancellor of State-run universities, in approving appointments to 36 institutions. Following the intervention of the Justice Lalit Committee, 19 appointments were cleared, while a stalemate persisted over 17 others where the Governor had declined to approve the first-preference candidates recommended by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Appearing for the State government, senior advocate Jaideep Gupta informed the court that there were certain reservations regarding a few of the names recommended by the committee. However, expressing his disapproval, Justice Kant said, “Even the Chancellor has accepted the committee’s recommendations, you too should agree.”

Mr. Gupta said the State was not inclined to prolong the dispute. “We are not here to contest such issues extensively. Where there are one or two reservations, Your Lordships may resolve them,” he said.

Justice Kant observed that the Bench would refrain from discussing individual candidates in open court, indicating that such deliberations were best suited for chamber proceedings. “For now, let the appointments on which there is agreement be made,” he said.

In its August 1 order, the Supreme Court had clarified that Justice Lalit and the other members of the selection committee were not bound by the Chief Minister’s order of preference while deciding the names of 15 vice-chancellors. Instead, they were directed to make an independent assessment of each candidate’s suitability, giving “due weightage” to the Chancellor’s observations and to the reasons cited by the Chief Minister in support of her recommendations.

The committee, comprising experts from diverse fields, submitted unanimous recommendations for 12 of the 15 universities, while in three cases the members differed on the order of preference for the top three candidates. The Court had earlier directed both sides to take “formal instructions” on the recommendations before proceeding further.

The row over Vice-Chancellor appointments is the latest flashpoint in a series of confrontations between the Governor and the Trinamool Congress government. Last year, the State had approached the top court against the Governor’s inaction on eight Bills sent for his assent, some of which have been pending since 2022.