Bengal govt moves SC against governor for stalling 8 bills

Kolkata: West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool govt moved Supreme Court against the governor for stalling eight bills passed by the assembly, six of which are pending for a year and 10 months and two for eight months. The time frame coincides with the tenures of governor CV Ananda Bose, and his predecessor and current Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar. Seven of the bills pertain to the appointment of vice-chancellors (VCs).
In its plea, the state has contended that a governor “must not be allowed to use pocket veto through the back door” when the Constitution does not give him or her such discretionary powers.
The 124-page special leave petition (SLP) was mentioned before a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. “The bench said the matter will be heard early,” said Sanjay Basu, Bengal’s senior standing counsel in SC.
The seven VC-related bills deal with the appointments in state-aided and private varsities. These include the ones in which the CM replaces the governor as state university chancellor and state education minister replaces the governor as “visitor” in private universities.
Six of these bills were passed in June 2022, when Dhankhar was governor. The seventh was passed in Aug 2023 after Bose stepped into Raj Bhavan. It seeks to expand the search-and-selection committee for VC appointment as per UGC norms, but in a manner that gives the majority voice to state nominees.