Maharashtra: MVA aims to cut governor’s power to choose vice-chancellors

MUMBAI: The Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state will take a relook at the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, energy minister Nitin Raut said on Thursday, pointing out that it was “high time” the amendment was made to provide for curbing arbitrary powers of the governor to appoint vice-chancellors.
At the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Raut had raised the issue, and he was backed by dairy development minister Sunil Kedar. A senior bureaucrat confirmed to TOI that following the deliberations in the cabinet meeting, the department of higher and technical education has initiated the process for amending the Act.
Raut told TOI on Thursday, “In my opinion, arbitrary powers of the governor to appoint vice-chancellors need to be curbed as priority. In the recent past, Raj Bhavan had appointed RSS sympathizers as VCs. Such things will have an adverse impact on the education system. We have suggested to the CM that the law be amended to provide for consultation with government before appointment of VCs.”
Raut said the state government will in particular take a look at Sections 8 (control of state government on universities), 9 (chancellor and his powers), 11 (appointment of vice-chancellors) and 13 (appointment of pro-vice-chancellors).
Raut said that as per the rules at present, a search committee is set up for shortlisting nominees and a panel of five candidates then placed before the Governor, who selects one of them. In the process, the state has no role, he said. “We feel that before appointing a VC, the governor must consult the state government and the chief minister. VCs must be apolitical and they should not join hands with political parties and organizations,” Raut said.
Raut alleged that even most nominees on statutory committees of the universities were, especially during Devendra Fadnavis’s tenure as CM, directly or indirectly associated with the RSS.
The Bengal government had made two crucial changes in the West Bengal Colleges and Universities (Administration and Regulation) Act, 2017, and introduced the West Bengal State Universities (Terms and Conditions of Service of the Vice-Chancellor and the Manner and Procedure of Official Communication) Rules, 2019, last year.
According to these changes, the governor, as chancellor of state universities, has no power to pick the vice-chancellor from the panel provided by the state education department. The education department provides candidates’ names in order of preference and the governor has no authority to even alter that order. The governor can merely ask for a clarification but will have to go with the state’s choice. Earlier, the chancellor could choose the vice-chancellor in consultation with the state government. The chancellor does not have any power to give extensions to vice-chancellors without the state government’s consent.
The chancellor also cannot have any direct communication with vice-chancellors. The chancellor’s suggestions or advice to VCs have to be routed through the state government.
-With inputs from Kolkata