In showdown with Raj Bhawan, Nitish govt issues own ads for VCs

The Bihar government and the Raj Bhawan are again on confrontation path, in a reprise of what had happened in 2010 during the tenure of former Governor (late) Devanand Konwar, when the showdown over the appointment of vice chancellors had snowballed after the then education secretary KK Pathak had stopped the salary of Magadh University (Bodh Gaya) and VKS University (Ara) VCs. The matter had gone up to the Supreme Court, which defined in 2013 the process for appointment of VCs in Bihar.

The same process continued since then until Monday, when the department of education issued separate advertisements for the appointment of vice chancellors, less than a week before the last date for submission of applications (August 24-26) to advertisements issued by the Raj Bhawan (Chancellor being the appointing authority) was to end. The last date for submission of applications to the department’s secretary Baidyanath Yadav is now September 13. The selection of a panel of 3-5 names will be done by the search committee through a public notification.

The department’s advertisement has come at a time when several candidates have already applied in response to the Raj Bhawan advertisement and the process of screening is set to start to fill the position of VCs in six universities, which will fall vacant next month.

As per the process laid down by the Supreme Court in 2013 following a long tussle between the state government and the Raj Bhawan over appointment of VCs, the panel comprising three to five names for each university, submitted by the search committee after interaction with prospective shortlisted candidates, goes for consultation between the Governor, who is also the Chancellor of state universities, and the chief minister for selection of vice chancellors. The search committees are formed by the Raj Bhawan.

“Now, with the department also initiating the exercise, the search committee will be formed by the state government and later the panel of names will be sent to the Chancellor for selection of VCs in consultation with the chief minister to reduce Raj Bhawan’s role,” said a senior official of the department.

According to sources in the Raj Bhawan, the Chancellor is the appointing authority and will go ahead with the appointment process already initiated and on since the Supreme Court defined the process.

Dept questions autonomy

Three days after Bihar governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar termed the Bihar’s education department order stopping the salary of the vice chancellor and Pro-vice chancellor of a state university and freezing its bank accounts as “arbitrary”, and “attack on the autonomy of universities” and directed it to be withdrawn, the department has questioned it.

“The department is unable to withdraw its earlier orders and is obligated to enforce the provisions of the Act on the universities,” says the letter from Baidyanath Yadav, secretary, department of education. “Kindly indicate under which section of the Bihar State Universities Act, 1976, the ‘autonomy’ is defined and universities made ‘autonomous’. Further, when the state government provides financial support to the tune of thousands of crores to the universities, it cannot allow anarchy to prevail in the universities in the garb of so-called autonomy,” it adds.

The letter from secretary clearly states that the state government supports the universities to the tune of ₹4,000 crore annually and, therefore, the department is well within its right to seek accountability from the universities as to how and where the money of the tax payers is spent.

“In the instant case, BRA Bihar University (Muzaffarpur) defaulted in its fundamental obligation to conduct exams and as mandated under section 4 (2) of the Bihar state universities Act, 1976. Moreover, the university has defaulted in its primary obligation to inspect all university departments, colleges and hostels as mandated in section 4 (5) of the Act. You will agree that the state government is responsible and answerable not only to the taxpayers but the students and their guardians and, therefore, when any university fails in its primary purpose, the state government is under obligation to intervene, call for reports and call meetings of the universities,” says the letter.

In Bihar, higher education has remained a vexed issue, with the government and the Chancellor often coming face to face over controlling power on universities.

Last year, controversy surrounding some of the VCs and raids by the state Vigilance sleuths on the then Magadh University VC Rajendra Prasad had led to power tussle, with the Raj Bhawan writing against it to the government and describing it as an “infringement on the autonomy of state universities”.

The situation had flared up so much at one point of time that the education minister had skipped a meeting at the Raj Bhawan to felicitate VCs. The government also tried to bring a bill to take control of universities, but it got stalled. Later, the CM was made the Chancellor of three new universities for medical, engineering and sports.

A former additional chief secretary, Sanjay Kumar, who is now secretary at the Centre (school education and literacy, ministry of education), had also referred to “diarchy system” in Bihar during his address at Patna University in 2021, with administrative control of varsities with the Chancellor although all the finances is taken care of the by the state government.

Delay inevitable

Several state universities in Bihar are once again set to slip under ad hoc arrangement by the third week of next month, as incumbent vice chancellors will complete their term and the process for their successors is unlikely to be completed by then due to repeat advertisements for their selection.

While the search for the Patna-based Aryabhatt Knowledge University (AKU) vice chancellor (VC) has been on for over three years, six more universities, including Patna University, will see the term of their VCs ending after September 19. BRA Bihar University is also functioning under the additional charge of VKSU University, Ara, Shailendra Kumar Chaturvedi, since March this year.

In Bihar, a VC is appointed for a term of three years. The six VCs completing their term, along with seven Pro-VCs, were appointed on September 19, 2020, by the Raj Bhawan just ahead of the Election Commission notification for Bihar Assembly elections to end the long spell ad hocism. The advertisements for their appointments were issued in March 2019 itself and it had taken six months to complete the exercise.

Other universities which will have vacancies at the top and for which advertisements have been issued include BN Mandal University (Madhepura), LN Mithila University (Darbhanga), BRA Bihar University (Muzaffarpur), Jai Prakash University (Chapra).