Jadavpur University has written to the higher education department in early December that they be allowed to hold the annual convocation, which is traditionally held on December 24.
The officiating vice-chancellor, Buddhadeb Sau, said they were hopeful that the department would allow them to go ahead with the event.
The department has so far prevented JU from holding any meeting of its executive council, which ratifies the formalities for the convocation.
“We are awaiting approval from the department to hold a meeting of the executive council. If the meeting is allowed, the convocation can be held,” the officiating VC told Metro.
This is the second time that the university has written to the department regarding the convocation.
In a communication to the department before the Diwali break, the university had written that they had called a meeting of the executive council on November 24 to discuss the issues of “66th annual convocation, special convocation, approval of the revised budget for the financial year 2023-2024”.
A meeting held on November 3, in the office of the VC, had proposed that DLitt (honoris causa) be conferred on Sonal Mansingh, Nivedita Raghunath Bhide and Bibek Debroy and DSc (honoris causa) be conferred on Kopillil Radhakrishnan, Samir Venkatpathy Kamat and Ajay Mathur.
The executive council is required to ratify the names, following which a communication is to be sent to the governor, who is the chancellor of the university.
But the uncertainty over the convocation surfaced when the department asked the university on November 23 not to hold the scheduled meeting of the executive council on the ground that the university did not have a “regular (full-term) vice-chancellor”, a JU official said.
In a letter to JU registrar Snehamanju Basu, the department said holding any meeting of the council — the highest decision-making body of the university — in the absence of a regular VC would “violate” rules.
“It is in this context that the university has again written to the department,” the official said.
The rules cited were enacted in December 2019.
They say: “Notwithstanding anything contained in any Statutes, Ordinances, Regulations... the meeting of the Senate/Court or the Syndicate/Executive Council or the Governing Board or of any other Bodies or authorities of the University... shall be convened by the Vice-Chancellor....”
An official in the education department said Sau, being an officiating VC, cannot be considered as a regular VC.
Calls and a text message from this newspaper to education minister Bratya Basu failed to elicit a response.