The Bengal governor must abide by what the Supreme Court said on Tuesday, setting a timeline for all governors to act on bills, said Bengal education minister Bratya Basu on Wednesday.

“I hope that our governor, who is a learned person, will abide by what the Supreme Court has said, setting aside Tamil Nadu governor R.N. Ravi’s decision to withhold bills passed by the Assembly there. Therefore, he (Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose) must sign on the various university bills, including the one that seeks to appoint chief minister Mamata Banerjee as the chancellor of state-aided universities instead of the governor,” Basu said.

“The bill was passed by the Bengal Assembly twice. But it is gathering dust... in Raj Bhavan. I hope the governor will sign the bill.”

An apex court bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan observed that the governor did not have any “veto” power and could not sit on bills indefinitely.

The Bengal Assembly passed a bill in June 2022 that made the chief minister the chancellor of state universities instead of the governor.

The bill was passed amid a raging tussle between the chancellor and the state government over who would have the final say in the affairs of the universities.

Then governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had not signed the bill. His successor, Bose, is yet to sign it.

A bill that seeks to make the education minister the visitor of private universities, replacing the governor, also awaits Bose’s ascent. He also stands accused of sitting on a file with panels of names for full-term vice-chancellors in 17 state-aided varsities.