Patna High Court on Monday directed the chancellor’s office to furnish the list of all vice-chancellors appointed during the regime of former governor Devanand Konwar.

Appearing before a bench of Justice Mihir Kumar Jha, the chancellor’s counsel, senior advocate Y.V. Giri, submitted a list of vice-chancellors (VCs) appointed from December 2012 to till date but the court asked him to furnish the list of all the VCs appointed by previous chancellor, Konwar.

The bench passed the direction on a petition filed by Jitendra Kumar Rai and others through his counsel Arun Kumar challenging the Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University acting VC’s authority to take decisions like transfer, posting, promotion, appointment etc.

Jitendra and Ashwani Kumar Singh were removed from the posts of dean and proctor of the university, respectively. Both challenged the VC’s decision in the high court on the ground that an acting VC can discharge routine work.

On July 26, the bench restrained the VC from taking any policy decisions till further orders and also directed him to restore these officials to their respective posts.

Arun Kumar, the petitioners’ counsel, submitted that in spite of the July 26 order, they continued with the newly appointed dean and proctor. This is a gross violation of the court’s order, Kumar contended. He argued that according to the Supreme Court’s order, VCs are required to discharge only routine work and not any administrative and financial decisions.

Making transfer, posting, promotion are beyond his powers. Kumar submitted that even registrar who was present in the courtroom supported his case saying that he (registrar) has forwarded the file in this regard but the acting VC did not initiate any step for their appointment.

Agreeing with his contention, the court took serious note of the matter and initiated contempt proceedings against the present acting VC Ramchandra Jha, former VC Upendra Jha and the registrar for violating the order.

The bench also asked the registrar that he would not withdraw his salary until the petitioners are allowed to join their duties.

Meanwhile, a division bench comprising Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Vikash Jain on Monday directed health department’s principal secretary Vyasji to personally appear on August 23 before it along with the original record of 1997 rules recognising nursing institutes in the state. The bench passed the direction on a bunch of petitions filed for seeking direction to grant permanent approval to ANM institutes.