Standing his ground, Bihar Governor Devanand Konwar on Saturday reinstated six vice-chancellors, whose appointments were quashed by the Patna High Court last December.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Rekha M. Doshit and Justice A. Amanullah had scrapped the appointment of the six VCs and four Pro-VCs on the ground that the Governor, in his capacity as Chancellor of universities, had made these appointments without consulting the State government as stipulated under Section 10(2) of the Bihar State Universities Act, 1976 and the Patna University Act, 1976. The court further directed the Chancellor to make a fresh list of candidates.
Exercising his powers under the two Acts, Mr. Konwar, while making fresh appointments for eight universities, reinstated Shambhu Nath Singh, Arun Kumar, Ram Vinod Singh, Bimal Kumar, Arvind Pandey and Mohammad Shamsuzzoha, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson confirmed to The Hindu.
They have been made VCs of the Patna University, Magadh University, B.N. Mandal University, J.P. University, K.S.D. Sanskrit University, and Maulana Mazharul Haque Arabic and Persian University respectively.
Of them, Mr. Shambhu Nath Singh, Mr. Pandey and Mr. Mohammad Shamsuzzoha have been retained in their original universities.
Besides these six, the Governor also appointed Shiv Shankar Singh as the VC of Veer Kuer Singh University (VKSU) and Kumaresh Prasad Singh as the VC of B.R. Ambedkar Bihar University (BRABU). The appointment of VCs has been a contentious issue between the State government and the Governor, with the former complaining earlier that it was kept out of the process.
