#NotMyVC: NUJS Vice Chancellor Resigns After Students Protest

The VC sent his resignation directly to the Chief Justice of India and did not visit campus.

Students protest at WBNUJS.

(Photo: Ishadrita Lahiri/The Quint)

The Vice Chancellor of West Bengal National University of Juridicial Sciences (WBNUJS), P Ishwara Bhat resigned amidst protests by students after an internal review commission indicting him of maladministration was accessed by the students.

The students of WBNUJS were on protest after having given the Vice Chancellor time till 28 March, 9am to resign. The campus saw many students and teachers out in the sun, sloganeering against Bhat.

The VC did not visit the campus and sent his resignation directly to the Chief Justice of India, say students.

The university had been under lock down due to protests by students for the last two days.

Students say that Bhat had applied for vice-chancellorship of the Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) in Patna and his application was rejected due to reports of malpractice.

A report by the first ever University Review Commission in NUJS, dated 31 October 2017, was obtained by the Student Juridical Association (SJA) – the student representative body of NUJS – on Saturday, 24 March. The report admitted, among other things, that there are serious concerns of maladministration which need redressal in WBNUJS.

The University Review Commission, which is to be called to review every National Law School every five years by the VC, reviewed NUJS for the first time in seventeen years, say students. They also allege that the report was suppressed from them by the VC.

Demanding Bhat’s resignation “on grounds of his proven incapacity and moral culpability” the students had first launched a “passive” protest on social media and in classrooms where they stood during the entire length of the class.

A Facebook page said students had discussed the report with some faculty members, who had agreed to reschedule their classes and stand with the students in solidarity.

We interacted with the faculty in their respective classrooms and asked for their opinion on the review commission report. Most faculty agreed that the university faces dire systemic problems and complete administrative failure under the leadership of Professor Bhat. After the faculty expressed their support for our cause, we requested the faculty to reschedule classes on Wednesday onward in case Professor Bhat does not resign. In order to not cause any disruption to academics, most faculty were agreeable to the our request.

A post on a NUJS Facebook Page

A Facebook page by the name of ‘NUJS Speaks’ was created by anonymous students to post pictures of protest under the hashtag #NotMyVC.

The students had vowed to continue their protest if there is no response or no action taken.