Arvind Kumar and (below) Subhash Prasad Sinha

Patna, Sept. 8: In another setback to the governor-cum-chancellor of Bihar universities, Devanand Konwar, a division bench of Patna High Court today upheld the decision of the single bench regarding quashing of appointment of vice-chancellors (VC) of Veer Kuer Singh University, Ara, and Magadh University, Bodhgaya.

The double bench, consisting of Justice Shivakriti Singh and Justice Shivaji Pandey, observed that there was no consultation between the state government and the chancellor on the appointment of the two VCs and consultation was mandatory before making any appointment of the VCs.

The double bench stressed that the judgment of the single bench was right. Incidentally, even after the single bench verdict, the Governor House has made fresh appointments of six VCs and five pro-VCs, again kicking off a row that the state government had completely been sidelined and that the mandatory consultation before the appointments had not been made.

The single bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi on May 4, 2011, had quashed the appointment of Arvind Kumar, the VC of MU and Veer Kuer Singh University VC Subhash Prasad Sinha saying that the chancellor did not follow the mandatory procedure of consulting the state government before appointing them.

“The said appointments of private respondents (VCs of MU and VKSU), which were made without consultation with the state government as envisaged under Section 10(2) of the Bihar State Universities Act, are quashed and it is declared that the appointment of two private respondents are void ab initio (invalid from the very inception),” a bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi had said while raising a question over the manner in which the chancellor made consultation with the government for VC appointments.

After the judgment of the single bench, the sacked VCs of the two universities had filed an appeal in the high court seeking stay of the order of the single bench but the court refused to grant them any relief. During the course of hearing, the chancellor’s counsel had showed file noting wherein the chancellor had in his handwriting scribbled on the left side of a file pertaining to the constitution of a universities tribunal bill to show that consultation had taken place with the government for the appointment of the VCs.

“The court has meticulously gone through the said note of the chancellor which has been purportedly made in his own pen. The first thing which the court notices is that the note does not have any initial of the minister and it has been incorporated in a file not even related to the question of appointment of VCs to the universities of Bihar much less the universities in question,” the court noted in its judgment.