Universities – Appointment of Vice-Chancellors in 35 Stateaided Universities in the State of West Bengal – Dispute between the State Government and the Governor of West Bengal-Chancellor of subject Universities, as regards the appointment of regular Vice-Chancellors – No consensus between the authorities in the matter of constitution and composition of Search Committees for shortlisting the candidates for appointment as Vice Chancellors – Neither regular Vice-Chancellors nor interim or ad-hoc Vice-Chancellors permitted to be appointed – Invocation of power u/Art. 142: Held: Order passed for constitution of Search-cum-Selection Committee for all the subject Universities – It is resolved to constitute Search-cum-Selection Committee(s) of the same composition so as to avoid any confusion – Endeavour is to infuse transparency, independence, fairness, and impartiality so as to ensure that the persons possessing the highest level of competence and integrity and are capable of leading the University – Experts who are eminent scientists, educationists, jurists, subject experts, and administrators in their own right, are shortlisted – Appointment of Hon’ble Mr. Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, Former Chief Justice of India as Chairperson of the Search-cum-Selection Committees for all the Universities in West Bengal – Chairperson authorized to constitute separate or joint Search-cum-Selection Committees for one or more Universities, keeping in view the nature of subjects/disciplines in which education is being imparted therein – Chairperson to nominate 4 persons out of the empaneled experts, whom he finds capable of short-listing suitable names for appointment as Vice-Chancellors – Chairperson to constitute the Search-cum-Selection Committees for the group or the individual Universities as early as possible – Chairperson to be paid an honorarium of Rs. 3 lakhs for every effective day of proceedings of the Search Committee, until the entire process is completed – The Chief Minister, State of West Bengal to recommend the shortlisted names in order of preference for appointment as Vice-Chancellors – In case the Chief Minister has reasons to believe that any short-listed person is unsuitable for appointment as Vice-Chancellor, the remarks to this effect to be put up before the Chancellor – In cases where said objection is not acceptable to the Chancellor or where the Chancellor has objection against empanelment of any particular name for which he has assigned his own reasons, all such files to be put up before this Court – Final decision in this regard to be taken by this Court after giving reasonable opportunity of being heard to the objectors – State of West Bengal to file the Status Report in respect to compliance of the directions issued – West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Act,2012 – West Bengal Laws (Amendment) Act,2014 – Constitution of India – Art.142. [Paras 10,12,14-20]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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