July 10: Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee, a professor of political science and pro vice-chancellor (finance) of Calcutta University, will be the next interim head of the institution.

Chakravarti Banerjee, whose husband Alapan Bandyopadhyay is state transport secretary and father Nirendranath Chakravarti an eminent poet, will take charge on July 15, a day after the term of current interim VC Asutosh Ghosh comes to an end.

"We have decided to form a search committee tomorrow so the university does not have to be run by an interim VC anymore," education minister told Metro tonight.

The committee will prepare a shortlist of candidates for appointment as full-term VC.

The government had proposed Chakravarti Banerjee's name as interim VC to governor Keshari Nath Tripathi as selecting a full-term head would take time.

In December 2016, the state government had decided to constitute a search committee to prepare a shortlist for the post of CU vice-chancellor.

The committee had at a meeting on March 8 prepared a list and sent it to the governor. But questions were raised about the validity of the meeting as the tenure of interim registrar Soma Bandyopadhyay, who had called it as panel's acting secretary, had ended on March 7.

In June, minister Chatterjee had told this newspaper that a fresh search panel would be constituted.

CU is being helmed by an interim VC since July 2015, when Suranjan Das, the last full-term head, moved to JU.