Visva-Bharati VC moves writ petition

Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Sushanta Duttagupta today moved a writ petition before the Calcutta High Court challenging the findings of a fact-finding committee appointed by the HRD Ministry to look into charges of financial and administrative irregularities against him.
The committee, comprising former Allahabad High Court judge Sakharam Singh Yadav, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture (Shillong) chairman B B Dutta and Cambridge University professor Dilip Chakrabarti, had submitted a report to the Ministry on the charges against the vice-chancellor.
The committee looked into allegations of financial and administrative irregularities against Dattagupta and submitted its report on April 26.
S N Mukherjee, appearing for the vice-chancellor before Justice Tapabrata Chakraborti, argued that Visva-Bharati is an autonomous organisation and that the fact-finding committee has no jurisdiction to initiate any proceeding against the VC.

The VC also prayed for stay on all proceedings pertaining to the fact-finding committee.
Appearing for the HRD Ministry, Additional Solicitor General Kaushik Chanda opposed the petition stating that it was at a premature stage and that no step has been taken or no show-cause notice issued to Duttagupta on the basis of the report.
Justice Chakraborti fixed the matter for hearing on July 7 and directed the central government to place the report of the fact-finding committee before the court on that day.