Maharashtra government set to scrap Governor's power to appoint VCs

CM Uddhav Thackeray; (right) Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

The Uddhav Thackeray government is all set to escalate its ongoing battle with the governor's office by amending laws that give the Raj Bhavan sweeping powers to appoint vice chancellors to the state-run universities.

The governor is the chancellor of the state universities and exercises powers delegated under the Maharashtra University Act, 1984, and the Statutes of the University. The state has a total of 20 universities.

At the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Thackeray told his colleagues that the legal work to amend the relevant acts/laws to prevent the Raj Bhavan from having an absolute say in a V-C's appointments has already started, sources said.

The matter came up for discussion when the ministers from Nagpur Dr Nitin Raut, Sunil Kedar and Vijay Wadettiwar accused Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari of facilitating the appointment of the academicians who are ideologically affiliated with the Sangh Parivar. Their accusation was triggered by the selection of Dr Subhash Chaudhari, who took over as the Nagpur University V-C early this month. He was among the five candidates a search committee of experts, including a former high court chief justice, recommended to the governor.

The enraged ministers, who were also supported by their cabinet colleagues, demanded that the Sangh Parivar loyalists be stopped from getting the V-C's posts, as many vacancies will open in the future. They alleged that almost all the V-Cs appointed during the Devendra Fadnavis government were known to be the representatives of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP. These V-Cs ran their respective universities in a way that suits the RSS-BJP ideology and educational programmes, they alleged.

As per the August 8 Raj Bhavan statement, the governor had set up a search committee under the chairmanship of Justice Dilip Bhosle, retired chief justice of the Allahabad High Court, to recommend to him names for the post of the Nagpur University vice chancellor. IIT Kanpur Director Dr Abhay Karandikar and Water Supply and Sanitation department's principal secretary Dr Sanjay Chahande were among the other members of the committee. It said the governor announced Dr Chaudhari's name after interviewing all the candidates recommended by the search committee.

20
No. of universities in the state

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