The Supreme Court on Friday was informed that a high-powered selection committee headed by former Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit will conduct a fresh process to interview panellists for the appointment of vice-chancellors of three universities in Bengal in the first week of March.
The move aims to resolve the dispute between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose, who is also the chancellor of the universities.
Attorney-general R. Venkataramani, representing Bose, and senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, representing the Bengal government, told a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that apart from the three universities, there was no disagreement regarding the appointments for other varsities.
Chief Justice Kant recorded in Friday’s order the receipt of communication from Justice Lalit regarding the proposal to conduct the interviews for North Bengal University, MAKAUT and Netaji Subhas Open University.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on April 6, by which time the selection process is expected to be completed.
Earlier, on January 16, the bench had cleared the appointments of vice-chancellors to eight universities after a consensus emerged between the state and the governor.
However, differences persisted over three universities, prompting the Supreme Court to refer their appointments to the high-powered panel led by Justice Lalit. The panel decided to conduct “reinterviews” for these three universities.
The matter has seen multiple adjournments over the past year, as both sides sought time, indicating that differences between the governor and the chief minister were gradually narrowing. The apex court also held “in chamber” meetings with the attorney-general and senior counsel for the Bengal government.
During a hearing on December 3, 2025, Gupta had noted that the dispute mainly concerned five to six names of vice-chancellors. While acceding to adjournment requests, Chief Justice Kant said the matter would be heard in chambers, rather than in open court. The bench at that time, comprising Chief Justice Kant, Justice Ujjal
Bhuyan and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh, had ordered, “As jointly prayed for, post the matter on 19-12-2025 in chamber.”
On July 8 last year, the Supreme Court had constituted “Search cum Selection Committees” for all universities in Bengal, headed by Justice Lalit, to break the logjam between the chief minister and the governor over vice-chancellor appointments to various universities in the state.
The apex court had passed the order while hearing an appeal filed by the Bengal government and some PIL petitioners challenging the Calcutta High Court’s concurrent judgments upholding interim appointments made by the governor to various universities.