The higher education department on Thursday appointed full-term vice-chancellors to eight state universities, a little over a month after the Supreme Court approved their names.

On January 16, the apex court cleared the names of vice-chancellors for West Bengal State University, Sanskrit College & University, Diamond Harbour Women’s University, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University, Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University, Harichand Guruchand University, Raiganj University and Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya.

These universities had been without full-term VCs for the past two years. They were being run by authorised VCs appointed by the governor, the ex officio chancellor of state-aided universities, allegedly without consulting the state government.

The higher education department had barred authorised VCs from convening meetings of decision-making bodies such as the senate, executive council or board of studies, and from holding convocations without its approval. As a result, several academic and administrative activities were stalled.

The department’s bar was on the grounds that the authorised VCs were appointed unilaterally by the governor.

In some universities, even authorised VCs were absent in recent months.

The names of the VCs in the eight universities were approved following a convergence between the governor and the chief minister.

The Supreme Court’s January 16 order said: “In view of the consensus emerged from the parties, we request the chief minister of West Bengal to forward the above names to the learned chancellor for issuance of the notification of their appointment.”

An official said Thursday’s appointment orders were issued after Raj Bhavan sent the files to the department.

However, the appointment of VCs to three other universities — North Bengal University, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology and Netaji Subhas Open University — remains in limbo because of differences between the governor and the chief minister over the proposed names.

The apex court noted in its January 16 order: “It seems the parties have divergent opinions concerning the recommendations or inter-se merit of the candidates recommended for these three universities.

“We request the search-cum-selection committee headed by retired Justice U.U. Lalit to endeavour to take an appropriate decision within a period of four weeks.”

Justice Lalit and members of the search committee held a meeting on February 10 to discuss the way forward, an official said. The department is yet to receive his opinion.

When contacted, Justice Lalit declined to comment.