WB Universities' VC Appointments | Can Chief Minister Change Order Of Preference For Shortlisted Candidates? Supreme Court To Clarify

In the matter pertaining to appointment of Vice Chancellors for certain West Bengal Universities, the Supreme Court recently expressed an inclination to clarify its earlier order regarding recommendation of candidates' names by the Chief Minister, to say that the order of preference of the names shall be as fixed by the search-cum-selection committees.

The development came as an interim application seeking modification/clarification of judgment dated July 8, 2024 which was mentioned before a Justice Surya Kant-led bench by Attorney General of India R Venkataramani.

Referring to para 18 of the said judgment, the AG submitted that the line (in para 18) "Chief Minister shall be entitled to recommend the shortlisted names in order of preference for appointment as Vice ­Chancellors" may give rise to some controversy. "It could be understood that the Chief Minister can jump the queue...", the AG said.

Looking at the issue from the perspective as to whether Chief Minister can change the inter-se merit fixed by the search-cum-selection committee, Justice Kant said that there can be a slight clarification by inserting the line "as fixed by the search-cum-selection committee", so that the last line of para 18 reads,

"The Chief Minister shall be entitled to recommend the shortlisted names in order of preference, as fixed by the search-cum-selection committee, for appointment as Vice ­Chancellors" .

Supplementing, Justice Datta relayed to Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta (for State of West Bengal), "para 18 says that once it's determined by the search-cum-selection committee as to who would occupy 1,2,3 positions, and [...] feels that No.2 is unsuitable, the Chief Minister can...but that does permit to take away from 1,2,3 positions and put him at No.4 or 5, and bring No. 5 to No.11...that should not be...".

The court took the application on record and listed the matter for October 14.

To give a brief background, the Court is dealing with a Special Leave Petition filed by the State of West Bengal challenging the June 2023 judgment of the Calcutta High Court upholding the interim vice-chancellor appointments made by Governor Bose in 13 universities, in his capacity as the chancellor of the institutions.

On July 8, the Court delivered a judgment, constituting Search-cum-Selection Committees for Universities under the chairmanship of former Chief Justice of India UU Lalit. As per this judgment, the Committees, encompassing five members, are to prepare a panel of three names for each university for VC appointments, alphabetically and not in order of merits.

The committees' recommendations, duly endorsed by the chairperson, are to be presented to the State's Chief Minister. The CM is entitled to recommend the shortlisted names in the order of preference to the Chancellor. Chancellor, in turn, shall appoint the VCs out of empaneled names in the same order of preference as recommended by the CM. In case the Chancellor has any reservations about the empaneled names or the remarks made by the CM against any shortlisted candidates, he shall be entitled to put up his own opinion on file, which shall be duly supported with material and reasons.

Further, the Court made it clear that it will make the final decision in cases where one party objects to the shortlisted names and the other party does not accept such objections. Three months was given to complete the process.

An application has now been filed by the respondents seeking clarification of this judgment.

Background of Earlier Proceedings

Efforts to break the deadlock led the court to propose the constitution of a search-cum-selection committee for appointing vice-chancellors. However, the Court faced challenges in forming the committee as neither the governor nor the University Grants Commission (UGC) responded with nominees, as alleged by the state government.

This year, in April, the Court was informed that the Governor has agreed to fill up six vacancies of Vice Chancellors from the list recommended by the West Bengal Government. Besides this, the Court asked the State Government to send recommendations for the remaining vacancies.

Following this, the Court warned that it would appoint the VCs if the parties failed to do it amicably. The warning came after it was informed that out of the names of fifteen candidates (given by the State) for appointment as VCs for fifteen universities, the Chancellor found seven persons to be unsuitable and did not consider the rest.

On May 18, the Court ordered that the remaining eight persons be appointed within one week. It also directed the state government to send about twelve to fifteen names of eminent persons for reconsideration by the chancellor. This direction was passed to fill the seven vacant positions (out of fifteen).

After noticing that both the parties were ad-idem on the constitution of a Search Committee for the purpose of appointing VCs in left-out universities, the Court ordered that the same be constituted.

Case Title: State of West Bengal v. Dr. Sanat Kumar Ghosh & Ors. | Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 17403 of 2023