The Calcutta High Court today dismissed a petiton by Visva-Bharati University Vice-Chancellor Susanta Duttagupta challenging the jurisdiction of a fact-finding committee set up by the HRD Ministry to look into complaints against him.
Justice Tapabrata Chakraborti dismissed the petition on the ground that a showcause notice had already been served on him to explain his conduct over allegations of financial and administrative irregularities, on which the fact-finding committee has already filed a report.
Duttagupta's writ petition challenging the jurisdiction of the committee was dismissed as it became infructuous with the committee already filing its report and a show-cause notice served on the Vice-Chancellor on its basis.
Duttagupta had on June 24 moved a writ petition before the Calcutta High Court challenging the jurisdiction 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.
S N Mukherjee, appearing for the Vice-Chancellor, had argued that Visva-Bharati was an autonomous organisation and that the fact-finding committee had no jurisdiction to initiate any proceeding against the VC.
