Supreme Court Forms Committee Headed By Ex-CJI UU Lalit To Resolve Deadlock Over West Bengal Universities' VC Appointments

The Supreme Court today (July 08), in an ongoing dispute between the West Bengal government and Governor CV Anand Bose (Chancellor of Universities) regarding the appointment of Vice-Chancellors (VC) of Universities, has ordered the constitution of a separate or joint Search Selection Committee. 

The committee will be headed by former Chief Justice of India UU Lalit (chairperson) and will be constituted within two weeks. The Chairperson will preside over every such Search Selection Committee, which shall consist of five members. Further, the Search Committee shall prepare a panel of three names for each university for VC appointments, alphabetically and not in order of merits. 

The committee's recommendations, duly endorsed by the chairperson, shall be presented to the State's Chief Minister. If the CM has reason to believe that any such person is unsuitable, the remarks and the supporting material shall be presented to the Chancellor within two weeks. 

Furthermore, the CM shall be entitled to recommend the shortlisted names in the order of preference to the Chancellor. Chancellor, in turn, will appoint the VCs out of empanelled names in the same order of preference as recommended by the CM. In case the Chancellor has any reservations about the empanelled 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. 

Apart from this, in cases where the Chancellor has approved the names, the concerned department of the State has been directed to notify the appointment within one week of receipt of approval by the Chancellor. 

Notably, the Court also made it clear that the court will make the final decision in cases where one party objects to the shortlisted names and the other party does not accept such objections. The Court will pass the verdict after giving a reasonable opportunity to hear the objectors.

In today's order, the Court also laid down the time schedule according to which all the functionaries are required to function. The time period prescribed for completing the entire process is three months. Further, former CJI UU Lalit is to be paid Rupees 3 lakhs per effective meeting of the committee. Moreover, other committee expenses will be borne by the state.