DR. PRADEEP KUMAR Vs. DR. SAMIR KUMAR SHARMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals assail the judgment of the learned Single Judge dated 30th November, 2015 in a dispute that arose on account of certain promotions having been made by Dr. Arun Kumar Sinha in various departments of the Patna University while acting as a Vice Chancellor on a purely temporary arrangement, appointed under the orders of His Excellency The Governor of Bihar exercising powers as the Chancellor of the University. The promotions made by him by one stroke of pen on 4.5.2013 and again on 31.10.2013 including that of the present appellants have been found to be invalid by the learned Single Judge.

(2.) At the very outset, it would be pertinent to place on record that the appointment of Vice Chancellors and Pro-Vice Chancellors through the State of Bihar in various Universities governed by the provisions of the Bihar State Universities Act, 1976 came under the direct scrutiny of this Court in a challenge having been raised to the appointments on the said posts contending that the Chancellor, namely the Governor of the State, did not proceed to make the appointments after appropriate consultation with the State Government, thereby violating the procedure prescribed under the 1976 Act and, consequently, all such appointments were vitiated. One of the persons who had challenged the said appointments also claimed his own consideration, which appears to have been denied. Consequently, the petitioner therein, aggrieved by this part, approached the Apex Court and the State of Bihar assailed the judgment of the High Court contending that the appointment of the Vice Chancellors and the Pro-Vice Chancellors were in accordance with law. The Apex Court, on a scrutiny of the judgements of this Court, proceeded to hold that the appointment of the Vice Chancellors and the Pro-Vice Chancellors of different Universities were illegal, and quashed the same with a direction to the Chancellor to proceed to make appointments after effective and meaningful consultation with the State Government. The said judgment of the Apex Court is reported in (2013) 16 SCC 206 Ram Tawakya Singh vs. State of Bihar and Ors. While finally disposing of all the appeals, the following direction was given in paragraph 47.5 of the reported judgment extracted hereinbelow:-

(3.) The aforesaid judgment of the Apex Court was rendered on 19th of August, 2013 and during the pendency of the appeal, interim orders were passed by the Apex Court on 18.03.2013, 16.04.2013 and 23.04.2013 for making a stop-gap arrangement on the posts of Vice Chancellors and Pro-Vice Chancellors. The said interim orders have been extracted in paragraph 46 of the impugned judgment. It is by virtue of the aforesaid interim direction, which finally culminated into the order quoted above, that Dr. Arun Kumar Sinha, who was a Professor in Statistics in the same University, was given charge of the Vice Chancellor and Dr. Sudipto Adhikari, another Professor of the same University in the subject of Geography, was appointed as the Pro-Vice Chancellor on a pure temporary arrangement basis vide order dated 26.04.2013. The said background has to be mentioned because the appointment of the then Vice Chancellor Dr. Shambhu Prasad Singh was quashed by the Apex Court in the aforesaid judgment holding it to be invalid.