Bengal Assembly Passes Bill To Remove Governor As 'Visitor' To Private Universities

The West Bengal Private University Laws Amendment Bill, 2022, was passed without voting as the opposition BJP staged a walkout from the Assembly.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar

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The West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to replace the Governor with the state's Education Minister as 'Visitor' of private universities. The West Bengal Private University Laws Amendment Bill, 2022, was passed without voting as the opposition BJP staged a walkout from the Assembly, ANI reported.

As state Education Minister Bratya Basu started speaking after the completion of the discussion on the Bill, the BJP MLAs started protesting shouting "shame, shame!" and walked out of the House, PTI reported.

On June 6, the West Bengal Cabinet had approved the proposal to make the Education Minister the Visitor of 11 private universities in the state, replacing the Governor.

The development comes a day after the Bengal Assembly passed a bill to replace Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the chancellor of all state-run universities. The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was passed after 182 members voted in favour of the legislation and 40 against it in the 294-member Assembly.

While introducing the bill, state Education Minister Bratya Basu said there was "nothing wrong" in chief minister taking over as the chancellor.

"Why can't the chief minister be the chancellor of state universities if the Prime Minister is the chancellor of a central university- Visva Bharati? You can go through the recommendations of the Punchhi Commission. The governor, who is the present chancellor, has violated protocols on various occasions," PTI quoted Basu as saying.

The Punchhi commission had recommended that the convention of appointing governors as chancellors should be discontinued.

Now, both these bills need to get consent from Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar before becoming an act. Earlier, Bratya Basu had said that in case the Governor refuses to clear the bills, the government would pass an ordinance to bring the legislations into force.

READ | Bengal Assembly Passes Bill To Appoint CM As Chancellor Of State-Run Universities

Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said the BJP would request the Governor not to ratify the bill and instead send it to the Centre as it falls under the concurrent list of the Constitution.

The move comes in the backdrop of Governor Jadgeep Dhankhar's clash with the state government over appointments of vice-chancellors across universities. Dhankhar had earlier alleged that vice-chancellors of 24 universities were "appointed illegally without the chancellor's approval".

Last year, the vice-chancellors of the private universities skipped a meeting called by the Governor in Raj Bhavan, adding fuel to the fire.