SC clears appointment of permanent V-Cs for 8 universities

MP | 22 Jan 2026, Kolkata: The Supreme Court recently cleared the appointment of permanent vice-chancellors (V-C) for eight state universities after the state government and Raj Bhavan reached a consensus on the issue.

According to sources, appointments of permanent vice-chancellors were pending in 11 state universities. The deadlock has now been resolved for eight of them with the finalisation of V-C names.

Differences have persisted over three universities — University of North Bengal, MAKAUT, and Netaji Subhas Open University — prompting a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant to refer these names to a panel led by former CJI, UU Lalit, for fresh consideration. Also Read - ‘Pledge to win all 9 seats, says Abhishek from Purulia rally

The bench directed Justice Lalit’s panel to decide whether a fresh panel should be constituted to shortlist candidates or whether to select from the existing names. To allow the panel time to reach a decision, the matter was adjourned for four weeks.

As per the order, Ayan Bhattacharya has been appointed as the V-C of Sanskrit College and University, Sanchari Roy Mukherjee as the V-C of Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University, Nimai Chandra Saha as V-C of Harichand Guruchand University at Gaighata in North 24-Parganas. Arnab Sen has been appointed to Raiganj University, Mita Bandyopadhyay to Diamond Harbour Women’s University, Arunasis Goswami to Babasaheb Ambedkar Education University, Debabrata Basu to Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, and Debabrata Mitra to West Bengal State University.

Earlier, 19 of the state’s 36 universities had permanent vice-chancellors, but the appointments in 17 universities were stalled. A couple of months ago, the Raj Bhavan gave its consent to the names of permanent vice-chancellors for six universities, including Calcutta University and Jadavpur University.