A forum of vice-chancellors on Monday issued a statement expressing concern over the showcause notice governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had served on Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University VC last week.
The forum wondered whether the VC was being penalised for abiding by state government rules.
The West Bengal Vice-chancellors’ Council has 25 state university vice-chancellors as members.
Jadavpur University VC Suranjan Das and nine others attended the meeting in Salt Lake on Monday. The statement has been endorsed by all, according to the council.
The council discussed the showcause notice, in which Dhankhar, the chancellor of state universities, has asked VC Debkumar Mukhopadhyay to explain why he should not be removed from office for what he termed failure in following rules while convening the university’s convocation on Friday.
“We understand that our colleague has acted in accordance with the new rules that have been framed by the government. We have been informed by the VC of Panchanan Barma that he did not receive any response from Raj Bhavan, which made him go ahead with the convocation without the presence of his excellency,” the council said in its statement.
Dhankhar had invoked Section 9 of the Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University Act to serve a showcause notice on VC Mukhopadhyay.
Jadavpur University had held its convocation on December 24 without the chancellor, who had been blocked by employees on a campus replete with “Not Our Chancellor” posters put up by students.
Dhankhar had been shouted out of Calcutta University’s convocation on January 28 by some students protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register.
VC Das of JU had visited Raj Bhavan in November to invite Dhankhar to preside over the convocation. CU had invited him through the higher education department.
A vice-chancellor who was present at the meeting said the rules introduced by the Bengal government on December 10 said “all notice regarding convocation shall be brought to the notice of the department”. VC Mukhopadhyay had brought the notice on inviting the chancellor to the department’s attention.
“We were told by the department that the invitation would be forwarded to Raj Bhavan. That’s how he was invited in CU,” the VC said.
“As VC Mukhopadhyay did not hear anything from the Raj Bhavan, he went ahead with the convocation without the chancellor. We fail to understand why he is being punished for following the rules.”
The Telegraph’s calls and WhatsApp messages to Dhankhar on Monday went unanswered.
The council in its statement wondered whether the chancellor had the authority to serve a showcause notice on a VC, given that the new rules state such authority vests with the higher education department.
Education minister Partha Chatterjee had earlier said the rules had been framed in accordance with Section 17 of the West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Act, 2017.
VC Mukhopadhyay has been given 14 days to reply to the notice. The governor has said: “You (vice-chancellor) may also, if you so like, appear before me personally on 4pm on February 28 at Raj Bhavan to avail oral opportunity of hearing.”