Calcutta High Court asks Governor to respond to PIL alleging he is withholding assent on bill to replace him as University Chancellor

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered Dr. CV Ananda Bose, the Governor of West Bengal to file an affidavit in response to a plea highlighting his 'inaction' on a bill that proposes to make the Chief Minister the Chancellor of all State Universities instead of the Governor [Sayan Mukherjee vs Principal Secretary to His Excellency The Governor of West Bengal]..The public interest litigation (PIL) petition before the High Court highlighted that since June 2022, the Governor has neither assented to nor rejected the West Bengal Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which contains the proposed change. .A division bench of Justices IP Mukerji and Hiranmay Bhattacharyya said the issue could only be decided after the officer of the Governor files an affidavit."Whether at all a case has been made out to make the Governor 'answerable' under Article 361 of the Constitution of India can only be evident on filing of affidavits. In the circumstances, we only direct that an affidavit-in-opposition be filed by the office of the Governor disclosing the status of the bill," the Court ordered..The Court has called for this affidavit to be filed by October 4. Meanwhile, the petitioner was given time till October 13 to file a reply to the said affidavit. .The plea was moved by one, Sayan Mukherjee who has alleged that the Governor was 'sitting' over the bill, which was sent for his assent in June 2022. He argued that the same is being done because the Governor would be removed from the role of 'Chancellor' of these universities.He further contended that while the Governor is yet to take any decision on the bill, he has continued to make appointments of Vice Chancellors in various universities..The petition was contested by Deputy Solicitor General (DSG), Billwadal Bhattacharyya who raised questions on the maintainability of the petition and urged for its dismissal. The DSG asserted that the Governor is immune from answering the subject issue under Articles 361 and 212 of the Constitution of India. He further pointed out that the petitioner was a political functionary and questioned whether he had approached the High Court with clean hands. .The bench noted that the matter was initially heard by another bench, which was informed that the tenure of the Vice-Chancellors of most of the universities covered by the bill was expiring on May 31, 2023. The bench had then directed the petitioner to make a representation to the Governor and subsequently, on July 17, 2023, it directed the matter to appear on August 21, 2023, to be heard on the question of maintainability.The matter will be heard next on October 16, 2023.Senior Advocate LK Gupta along with advocate Achintya Kumar Banerjee appeared for the petitioner, Sayan Mukherjee.DSG Billwadal Bhattacharyya and advocate Ayanabha Raha represented the Union of India.Additional Government Pleader Tapan Kumar Mukherjee and advocate Somnath Naskar represented the State..[Read Order]