Mita Mukherjee
The stalemate at Jadavpur University continued on the campus with officiating vice-chancellor Buddhadeb Sau abstaining from work despite the state government’s clarification that he could perform his duties in the post.
Sau issued a press release on Tuesday afternoon where he reiterated that he will not attend office at present and wait till the Supreme Court takes its decision on the issue of appointing permanent vice-chancellors of state-aided universities.
The impasse at JU had been continuing on the campus over last few weeks following removal of Sau from the post by governor C. V. Ananda Bose who is the ex-officio chancellor of Jadavpur and all other state-aided universities in Bengal.
Though the state higher education department on Friday had told him that he could continue to perform his duties as officiating vice-chancellor, Sau did not attend office.
“Due to ongoing legal (still under purview of Supreme Court) and administrative confusion, caused by series of communications, Sau, a professor of mathematics at JU, was appointed officiating VC by Raj Bhavan in August last year. He was removed from the post by chancellor Bose on December 23 on “disciplinary grounds.”
The appointment of permanent VCs in 31state-sided universities in the state including Jadavpur Univetsity is pending before the Supreme Court following a move of the chancellor to appoint officiating VCs without consulting the state government.
Despite his removal by the governor on December 23, Sau had attended the university convocation the next day following a letter from the higher education department asking him to conduct the convocation programme.
Sau, in his statement on Tuesday appealed to the chancellor and also the higher education to “come forward together” and bring academic and administrative normalcy on the campus.
“In this context, please note that, on receiving related State Government’s letter on 23rd December, 2023, the scheduled Convocation of JU was possible to be held on 24th December, 2024……. In this perspective, my humble request to both Chancellor Sir & State Government, is that – Please come forward together and solve this impasse, to bring about normalcy in academic and administrative ambiance of our beloved JU,” the statement read.
Senior officials of the university held a sit-in demonstration on the campus on Monday protesting the deadlock prevailing on the campus which they alleged has resulted due to absence of a permanent VC for a long time.