(Governor's Secretariat, Bihar No. BSU-2044/GS (1) dated-23.9.94)

It has come to the notice of the Chancellor that in various Universities Senate, Syndicate and the Academic Council are not functioning according to the provisions of Universities Acts. It may be noted that the Senate, Syndicate and the Academic Council are the authorities of the Universities established under the Acts and the constitutions and functioning of these authorities are mandatory.

 Although under Section 10 (13) of the Bihar State Universities Act, and Section 11 (11), of the Patna University Act it shall be the duty of the Vice-Chancellor to see whether the proceedings of the University are carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Act, Statutes, Ordinance, Regulations and the Rules or not, the Vice-Chancellor in some cases might have miconstrued the provisions of the Act in not acting in conformity with Section 75 A of the Bihar State Universities Act and Section reason 76A  of the Patna University Act wherein it has been provided that if for any reason the Senate or Syndicate or the Academic Council is not constitutes, then till its constitution for the purpose of carrying out the business under the Act, the Ex-officio and nominated members will be competent to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of those bodies. The relevant extract of the decision of the Hon’ble High Court by a Division Bench in CWJC No 5855 of 1993 decided in regard to Nawada Vidhi Mahavidyalaya, Nawada and others vs. State of Bihar and others [reported in 1993(2) PLJR 653] is as follows:

23. "Sections 18, 22 and 24 provides the constitution of the Senate, Syndicate and Academic Council. A reference to these provisions shows that the statutory bodies have to be comprised of ex-officio Members, nominated Members as also elected Members. The Syndicate and the Senate of the Universities established under the Act had been dissolved with enforcement of the Bihar State Universities (3rd Amendment) Ordinance, 1986 with effect from 17.12.1986 by incorporating the following section in the Act.

Section 79A—The present Syndicate and Senate shall cease to exist with effect from the date of the Bihar State Universities (3rd Amendment) Ordinance, 1986 comes into force. The powers and duties of the Senate and Syndicate, as the case may be, shall be discharged by the Vice-Chancellor so long the new Senate/ Syndicate is not constituted."

24. The above said proviso was kept alive through the process of repromulgation of the Ordinances, till the enactment of the Bihar State Universities (Amendment) Act 1990 (Act 3 of 1990)  which came into force on 30th January 1990. The Legislature did not approve the retention of the above noticed provision on the Statute book. The result was that since the enforcement of the aforesaid amending Act, the Vice-Chancellor ceased to have any power to discharge the functions of the Senate and the Syndicate. But I cannot just stop here.

25. By the aforesaid amending Act, amendments were made in Sections

 

 

Statutes                                                          Part II [ 217

 

18, 122 and 24 of the Act touching upon the constitution of the authorities of the University referred to in Section 17 of the Act. It has been said at the Bar that so far no effort has been made to reconstitute the said bodies in accordance with the amended provisions. Even it be so, the Legislature by incorporating Section 75A in the Act, has provided an answer to it. This provision reads as under

[“75 क विश्वविद्यालय निकायों के गठित न होने पर कार्य वयवस्था:- यदि किसी कारणवश विश्वविद्यालय की सिनेट, अभिषद्, विद्वत परिषद अथवा अन्य किन्हीं निकाय का गठन न हो सके तो जब तक इन निकायों का गठन नहीं हो जाए, तब तक अधिनियम के उपबंधों को कार्यान्वित करने के प्रयोजनार्थ, पदेन एवं नाम निर्देशित सदस्य मिलकर संबंधित निकाय की किन्हीं शक्तियों का प्रयोग तथा किन्हीं कर्तव्यों का पालन कर सकेंगे।

(2) किसी विश्वविद्यालय द्वारा रिक्तियों रहने के कारण उनके चुनाव अवैध नहीं होगा।

25A. In view of the aforesaid provisions, if for any reason, the Senate or Syndicate or the Academic Council is not constituted, then till its constitution for purpose of carrying of the business under the Act the ex-officio and nominated members will be competent to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of those bodies. No doubt under section 10 (12) of the Act, some emergency powers have been vested in the Vice-Chancellor to be exercised for taking some immediate action, but it is subject to the limitation prescribed therein. In any case, theirs can not extend to making of delegated Legislation. In any view of the matter, if the Vice-Chancellor feels that there is any immediate necessity of calling of the meeting of any body constituted under the Act for discharging of its functions, he has been amply empowered in this regard under sub-section (7) of section 10 of the Act.”

In view of the aforesaid legal position it is bounden duty of the Vice-Chancellor ensure that the Authorities under the Acts function properly and call the meetings of the Senate, its Committees and Sub-Committees, Syndicate, its Committees and Sub-Committees as well as the Academic Council and other authorities under the Acts within the provisions of Section 10 (7) of the Bihar State Universities Act 1976 and 11 (7) of the Patna University Act.

Under the circumstance referred to above, the Hon'ble Chancellor has been pleased to direct the Vice-Chancellor of all the Universities to discharge the duties cast upon them under the Act to help the Universities to run smoothly by activating the functioning of the aforesaid bodies, without delay even only with the Ex-officio members-

This may be treated as most urgent.

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