Kolkata, Oct 12,2022:  First the division bench of Calcutta High Court and then Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed appointment of Sonali Chakraborti Banerjee as the vice-chancellor of the prestigious University of Calcutta.

Legal experts feel that the manner in which the state government applied the “removal of difficulties” under Section 60 of the Calcutta University Act, 1979 ultimately made the re-appointment ‘unconstitutional and illegal’.

According to counsel of the Calcutta High Court, Jyoti Prakash Khan, the state government could apply the “removal of difficulties” Clause only in case of emergency situations.

“The post of the vice-chancellor becomes vacant suddenly either because of his or her sudden resignation or any reason which is beyond human control. In that case the state government could have applied the ‘removal of difficulties’ clause for appointment of someone as a working vice-chancellor temporarily till the time a fresh appointment for the chair is made,” Khan explained.

However, he added, in case of an appointment of a full-time vice-chancellor the state government concerned will have to abide by the University Grants Commission, 1956 and in that case the consent of the state Governor concerned is mandatory.

“The same thing is applicable in case of re-appointment of a vice-chancellor, where the Governor’s consent is necessary and sheer application of ‘removal of difficulties’ clause is not enough for that re-appointment. In this case, the state government exactly made the legal error in its hurry to give Sonali Chakraborti Banerjee the re-appointment,” Khan explained.

Explaining further, senior counsel of the Calcutta High Court, Kaushik Gupta said a subject like education, which is in the concurrent list, the state government cannot take any decision that goes against the Central Act in the matter.

“If any state Act or amendment in the Act has a factor of tussle with a Central Act in a matter related to any concurrent list subject, the clause of the Central Act will be supreme in the matter,” he said.

However, state’s educationists feel that in the entire process Sonali Chakraborti Banerjee is one who had a public loss of face.

“She is at no fault. I cannot imagine the manner in which the higher education system in West Bengal had a loss of face in the entire nation because of such whimsical steps of the current state government,” said former principal of the-then Presidency College, Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay.