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KOLKATA: President Droupadi Murmu has withheld assent to three bills passed by the West Bengal assembly in 2022 that sought to replace the governor with the chief minister as chancellor of state-aided universities, governor CV Ananda Bose’s office said in a statement on Monday.
“It may be noted that the principal Acts of the state-aided universities contain the provision that “the Governor shall, by virtue of his office, be the chancellor of the university”. Hon’ble President of India has withheld assent from the above Bills,” the statement said.
The three bills — West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill 2022; Aliah University (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the West Bengal University of Health Sciences (Amendment) Bill, 2022 — were passed by the assembly in 2022 amid tensions between the state government and the governor’s office, which was recently renamed as Lok Bhavan instead of Raj Bhavan.
But Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Bengal governor at the time, did not give assent to these three bills. Governor Ananda Bose took over as Bengal governor in November 2022.
Education is a subject in the concurrent list of the Constitution, meaning the Centre has equal say on issues related to it.
In April 2023, Bengal education minister Bratya Basu demanded that Bose clear the Bills and claimed that the passage of the three bills with an absolute majority implied that chief minister Mamata Banerjee was the chancellor of all state-aided universities.
The Bengal government later moved the Supreme Court against the Raj Bhavan for not clearing eight bills passed by the assembly.
In July 2024, the governor said six of the eight bills had been reserved for the consideration of President Murmu, one involved a sub judice matter while the eighth bill was pending because the state government hadn’t responded to clarifications sought by him.
To be sure , Rashtrapati Bhavan in July 2024 returned Punjab Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill to the Punjab Assembly. This bill was passed by the state assembly in 2023 and proposed to replace the governor with the chief minister as chancellor of state universities.
TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said the President can always refuse assent to the bills, but the next government would take up the issue again. Bengal goes to the polls in 2026.
“According to the Supreme Court’s rulings, a governor or the President may send a Bill back with or without suggestions, but they cannot keep a state government waiting indefinitely. The next government will take up these Bills again. If there is any suggestion from the President, then it will be incorporated and a fresh Bill will be passed by the assembly,” Majumdar told HT.
