Calcutta University’s syndicate adopted a resolution at its meeting on Tuesday noting why it had to meet despite a bar imposed by the state government, said a CU official.
The resolution mentioned that around 1 lakh students would have suffered had the university’s highest decision-making body not met and approved some exam-related regulations.
The university will upload on its website by Thursday the examination regulations for the four-year undergraduate programme that were approved by the syndicate, the official said.
CU will share the regulations with the affiliating colleges the same day, said registrar Debasis Das.
Once the examination regulations are shared with the colleges, the university’s undergraduate council will meet to decide on the dates of the first-semester exams of the four-year undergraduate programme.
CU had decided to hold the first-semester exams in January. The registrar said the tests could not have been scheduled for January had the syndicate not approved the regulations.
“The syndicate adopted a resolution noting why the meeting had to be called,” Das told Metro.
CU had written to the education department on December 8, seeking permission to call a meeting of the syndicate.
An official in the department said in a letter to the registrar on Monday that holding the meeting would be against rules because the university does not have a “regular (full-term) vice-chancellor”.
The university has since June 1 been helmed by Santa Datta, a CU professor, who has been entrusted by the governor, the ex-officio chancellor of all state-aided universities, with the responsibility of discharging the duties of a VC without consulting the department.
A CU official said the syndicate adopted the resolution so that the university can make its position clear if the education department seeks an explanation or challenges the university’s decision legally.
“In the resolution, we have noted the chronology of events before conducting the meeting. The resolution says that the university had since October 16 written to the department six times seeking permission to hold a syndicate meeting, but to no avail. The agenda of the meeting, which stated that exam regulations were to be approved, had also been shared,” the official told Metro.
“The fact that the first-semester exams for around 1 lakh students would have become uncertain if the syndicate meeting was not held hasalso been mentioned in the resolution.”
The department in its communication to the CU registrar had referred to a rule that says: “The person holding charge of the officeof the vice-chancellor shall only discharge to do the routine functions of the university but shall not hold any meeting of the Senate/Court/Governing Board or the syndicate/Executive Council of the University withoutprior permission of the State government.”
The rules were enacted in December 2019, during a turf war between the education department and the then governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, over control of universities.
A CU official said: “This denial of permission (to hold a meeting) is not uniform. Since becoming officiating VC, Santa Datta has conducted several syndicate meetings and the department did not object. The department has been raising objections since the Supreme Court said in an order on October 6 that the officiating VCs appointed by the chancellor would receive pay and perks commensurate with their previous posts, not that of a VC.”
Calls and text messages from this newspaper to education minister Bratya Basu failed to elicit any response.