Bengal Assembly passes bill to replace governor with CM as chancellor of universities. Opposition protests
The Bengal Assembly today passed a bill to make the chief minister the chancellor of all state government-funded universities in the state, replacing the governor. The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 was passed with 182 MLAs voting in favour and 40 against in the 294-member assembly.
While Education Minister Bratya Basu said there was nothing wrong with passing the bill, the BJP, which is the main opposition party, alleged that appointing the chief minister as chancellor would lead to political interference in the state’s higher education system.
BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul told the media the decision will “facilitate direct interference of the ruling party in the state’s education system”.
Minister Basu, on the other hand, asked, “Why can’t the chief minister be the chancellor of state universities if the Prime Minister is the chancellor of a central university, Visva-Bharati?”.
He referred to the “the recommendations of the Punchhi Commission”, which had recommended the stopping of the convention of governors being appointed the chancellor of state universities: “To be able to discharge the Constitutional obligations fairly and impartially, the Governor should not be burdened with positions and powers which are not envisaged by the Constitution and which may expose the office to controversies or public criticism.”
The Commission had also noted that “[t]here have been instances where, in selecting Vice-Chancellors, Governors as Chancellors have acted in their discretion, over-ruling the advice of the Council of Ministers”.
The minister said that the present governor, as chancellor, “has violated protocols on various occasions”.
The news agency ANI tweeted the leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari as saying that since education is a subject in the Concurrent List, as per the Constitution, he will meet the governor and “request [him] to send it [the bill] to Delhi” for the consideration of the President, instead of signing it into an act.
