Today, Monday, April 22, the Supreme Court sought a response from the office of West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on a plea alleging inaction in giving assent to the West Bengal Universities (Amendment) Bill 2022, which was passed by the state legislature in June 2022.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala issued notices to the principal secretary to the governor and the Union of India, seeking a reply within four weeks, reported PTI.
"Issue notice, liberty to serve the central agency," the bench said.
The West Bengal Assembly, in 2022, passed a bill to replace the governor with the chief minister as the chancellor of all the state-run universities.
On April 22, the apex court was hearing an appeal filed by one Sayan Mukherjee against an order of the Calcutta High Court which stayed its own earlier directions seeking a response from the governor on the issue and said it would examine the maintainability of the petition.
Initially, on September 12 last year, the high court had sought affidavits from the office of the West Bengal governor on the PIL challenging his alleged inaction, PTI added.
The plea said that even though the West Bengal Universities (Amendment) Bill 2022 was pending consideration since 2022, the governor kept appointing vice-chancellors in his capacity as the chancellor of the state universities.
The Centre, however, submitted before the high court that under Articles 212 and 361 of the Constitution, the governor is immune from answering the subject and the PIL was politically motivated and not genuine.
