Calcutta High Court wonders why Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor is still in office

The Calcutta High Court’s strong rebuke of Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty, with the judge saying that he should be removed for getting his own professor out of an international science project last year, has given fodder to his detractors who have long been baying for his blood.

The Calcutta High Court’s strong rebuke of Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty, with the judge saying that he should be removed for getting his own professor out of an international science project last year, has given fodder to his detractors who have long been baying for his blood.

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Professor Manas Maity, who teaches physics at the university, was part of the prestigious CERN project and had taken part in some protests that took place against the university administration. He paid a price for his criticism, with the V-C writing a letter to the Department of Science and Technology, asking for his removal him from the project.

“From the said letter of Bidyut Chakrabarty…it is clear to this court that the said person being the Vice-Chancellor not only acted against the petitioner who was the Head of the Department of Physics but also acted against the interest of the University. I wonder how such a person can continue as Vice-Chancellor of a University who himself wants to damage the University’s beneficial attainments,” judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay said in his order on Tuesday.

“I am of the view that this Bidyut Chakrabarty should be removed from the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University as he has categorically written a letter to the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, for which not only the university would be deprived (and has been deprived up till now) but also the interest of the country in the field of Science and Technology has been jeopardised,” the judge said, asking the university to make sure within seven days that Prof. Maity was back in the project.

Visva-Bharati said it would not like to comment on the judge’s remarks because they were part of a judicial verdict. The university, instead, issued a press statement saying, “It is surprising that a select group of the so-called academia is in defence of evil forces disturbing Visva-Bharati. Surprisingly, these self-proclaimed custodians of self-centric individuals maintained an eerie silence when a student was forced to end his life in Jadavpur University. Perhaps, by restraining themselves from condemning such an ugly incident in Jadavpur University, they make it very clear that they are partisan in their claim for protecting forces encouraging those defying rule of law on the campuses.”

The university further said, in what appeared to be a reference to the matter related to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen: “About the charges of land grabbing by an individual who received Visva-Bharati’s leased land, the matter is before the court. We have submitted relevant papers to the court and will wait till a judicial verdict is available. We would like to make one point, however: as per our records, we have adequate reasons to support our contention.”