Jadavpur University vice-chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti said on Tuesday that he would return to his office in a day or two after the government made it known that it didn’t approve of his absence from the campus for the second consecutive day.

“I will shortly take charge as the full-term VC. I could join maybe tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” he said.

If the vice-chancellor continues to stay away from the campus, education minister Partha Chatterjee might approach Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, who is the chancellor of JU, so that the government isn’t blamed for the impasse, sources said.

Chakrabarti had spent several hours on Monday clearing files from the office of the chairman of the higher education council in Gariahat, prompting education minister to question his decision to work out of a chair that wasn’t his. “How can he use the office of the higher education council for his work as the VC of Jadavpur University? JU is an autonomous institution,” Chatterjee said.

Vice-chancellor Chakr-abarti chose to do something even more different on Tuesday. He crossed the Hooghly to reach the Indian Institute of Engineering Science of Technology in Shibpur, formerly known as Bengal Engineering and Science University, and take an electrical engineering class.

He later told Metro: “I took a class at Shibpur from 9.30am to 11.40am. I left the campus around 12.30pm. Thereafter, I went to some other places. I also met (JU) registrar Pradip Ghosh in the afternoon.”

Chakrabarti had only last week extended his lien from the IIEST by four years to take over as the full-term vice-chancellor of JU from October 10.

Sources in the education department said it was conveyed to the vice-chancellor on Monday night that the state government didn’t take kindly to his decision to avoid the JU campus on the day it reopened after the Puja break. “We didn’t specify the date when he should join. But it was explained to him that it would be wrong for a VC to be not present on the campus at a time of unrest,” said an official of the education department.

Although the VC reports directly to the chancellor, the government intervened because of “the extraordinary situation”, the official said.

Tension between the university authorities and the students escalated to such a level after the alleged police action on the campus on the night of September 16 that the high court has had to intervene. The steps recommended by the high court to restore “normality on the campus” include designating a protest zone.

The official said normality would return only if the vice-chancellor made an attempt to “regain the confidence of the campus”.

“He has become an embarrassment for us instead, trying to escape the problem rather than confront it. We had backed his candidature for a full term because we got the impression that he could be a good administrator. But he has disappointed us,” the official said.

Asked what would be the government's stand if Chakrabarti continued to stay away from the campus, education minister Chatterjee said: “I am not aware why he skipped office today.... We would have to look into the matter if he continues to skip office for a long time. We will wait and watch what happens this week.”