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Journalism of Courage
Locked in a face-off with the Governor over several issues,particularly the appointment of a new Lokayukta without consulting it,the Gujarat government is set to strike back with a plan to strip Raj Bhawan of powers to appoint vice-chancellors of the state-run universities.
Governor Kamla Beniwal,who is the ex officio chancellor of over a dozen state-run universities,had ignored the state governments advice while appointing a number of vice-chancellors a few months ago.
Now,the state government plans to amend its Universities Act to curb the Governors powers to interfere in the educational matters.
Sources close to Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the proposed amendment will rely heavily on Justice Punchhi Commissions report on Centre-State relations,which is said to have recommended that the Governors should be restrained from meddling into educational matters of the state.
The Punchhi Commission,appointed by the UPA government in 2007 and headed by former Chief Justice of India Madan Mohan Punchhi,submitted its report in March 2010.
The government is very annoyed with the Governors move to appoint the pro-Congress D R Korat as Bhavnagar Universitys V-C last month and Hemakshi Rao as North Gujarat Universitys V-C a few months ago without consulting the state government, sources said.
After legal consultations,the states Education Department has submitted a proposal to amend all the state universities Acts to remove the provision of Governors role as chancellor of universities and do away with powers of the Governor to appoint V-Cs.
The department is also planning to write to the University Grants Commission to amend the model university act as per Justice Punchhi Commissions recommendations.
Sources confirmed the state Education Department has submitted the report to the General Administration Department (GAD) of the state government to put it before Modi and the Cabinet for a final decision.
The proposed amendment is likely to be tabled in upcoming budget session in February-March next year.
The Punchhi Commission,in its report,has questioned the practice of appointing Governors as chancellors in state universities. Although there have been no judicial pronouncements that deal with the implications of vesting this sort of powers with the Governor,there have been cases that posit that in his capacity as a Chancellor of a university,the Governor acts in his discretion and not on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, it has said.
