Manik Bhattacharya was appointed illegally as law college principal: UGC informs Calcutta HC

Kolkata:  Trinamool Congress legislator and former president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) Manik Bhattacharya, already in judicial custody because of his alleged involvement in the cash-for-job case, faced more embarrassment in the Calcutta High Court, on Monday.

The University Grants Commission (UFC) informed the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court’s single- judge Bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay that Bhattacharya was appointed as the principal of Kolkata-based Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College illegally.

However, the UGC’s revelations posed embarrassment for the previous Left Front regime rather than the current Trinamool Congress since Bhattacharya’s appointment as the law college principal was done in 1998, when West Bengal was under the CPI(M)-led Left Front’s rule with a nonagenarian Indian Marxist as the Chief Minister of the state.

The UGC has made this revelation in an affidavit in the matter which was directed by Justice Gangopadhyay.

In the affidavit the UGC has informed that Bhattacharya did not fulfil any of the criteria required for being a principal of any college. The first criteria are securing minimum 66 per cent marks at the post-graduation level along with a Ph.D or equivalent qualification.

At the same time, a person will be considered eligible for appointment as a college principal if he has at least 15years of teaching experience with any college or university or equivalent higher education institute.

–IANS