2 min readNew DelhiOct 10, 2015 11:15 AM IST
First published on: Oct 10, 2015 at 01:46 AM IST
Visva Bharati Vice-Chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta
In what could seal the fate of Visva Bharati Vice-Chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta, the HRD Ministry Friday resent the file favouring his dismissal to the President’s office, along with legal opinion backing the recommendation.
The latest development shows that the government is in no mood to offer Dattagupta an easy way out by accepting his resignation. The ministry had found the V-C guilty of gross financial and administrative irregularities.
Last week, Dattagupta emailed his resignation to President Pranab Mukherjee, a few days after the government made damning observations about his conduct as the head of the institute. He was appointed the Visva Bharati’s V-C in 2011 by the UPA-II government and still had a year left in his tenure.
Though the existing laws relating to central universities do not provide for sacking of a vice-chancellor, the President can invoke section 16 of the General Clauses Act, 1987, to remove him. The Act empowers the appointing authority to suspend or dismiss any person appointed under a central act or regulation.
Meanwhile, the President on Friday turned down the appointment of former ISRO Chief K Kasturirangan to the search panel for a new vice-chancellor for Delhi University, which has been asked to send a nomination to replace him.
The directive comes after the ministry sent a file to the President requesting him to send the varsity’s current V-C, Dinesh Singh, on “compulsory leave” as he had “deliberately” appointed Kasturirangan, an honourary DU professor, to the panel to select his successor, causing a conflict of interest.
Visva Bharati Vice-Chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta
Share
