12 former VCs send legal notice to Bengal governor

KOLKATA: Twelve former vice-chancellors of different state universities in West Bengal on Thursday sent legal notice to Governor CV Ananda Bose, who by virtue of his chair is also the chancellor of all state universities.

These 12 former vice-chancellors are those who were recently cited by the governor as those who had to resign as per the order of the Supreme Court because their appointments were not as per norms.

They have also clarified that the legal notice has been sent not to the governor but to the chancellor. Their contention is that the comments by the governor have resulted in the loss of social prestige.

In the legal notice, these 12 vice-chancellors have demanded the Governor should withdraw his statement and tender a public apology within the next 15 days or face a libel suit in the court. They have also demanded a damage of Rs 50 lakhs for each of them from the Governor.

On September 7, the Governor issued a video message clarifying why he had to appoint interim vie-chancellors for those state universities which were running without the functional heads for quite some time.

“Why I had to appoint interim vice chancellors for so many state universities? That was because the previous vice-chancellors had to resign as per the order of the Supreme Court of India because their appointments were not as per norms. I did not ask them to resign. They resigned themselves following the apex court’s order. Now you might ask why did not appoint state-nominated persons as vice chancellors. Some of those nominated persons were either involved in corruption while others have charges of harassing female students. How could I appoint them as vice-chancellors?” the Governor questioned.