New Delhi, Nov. 23: President Pranab Mukherjee, the visitor to Visva-Bharati, is learnt to have asked the Union human resource development ministry to accept the resignation of vice-chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta instead of insisting on sacking him.

No law governing Indian universities has any provision for sacking a vice-chancellor. The HRD ministry had invoked the General Clauses Act of 1897 that has a provision vesting with the appointing authority the power to remove a person he has appointed.

All central university vice-chancellors are appointed by the President.

Sources familiar with the development said the President's secretariat had returned the file moved by the HRD ministry seeking removal of Dattagupta who has been indicted by a fact-finding committee for alleged financial and administrative irregularities. In its recommendations, the ministry has attached the legal opinion from the law ministry endorsing removal.

The President's secretariat is understood to have told the ministry that the resignation of Dattagupta should be processed and sent to the Visitor for acceptance.