Governor CV Ananda Bose, who also serves as the chancellor of state-aided universities, has received a defamation notice from Professor Debnarayan Bandhopadhyay, a former vice-chancellor of a university in Bengal.
After Governor Bose recently claimed that there were claims of corruption and sexual harassment against some V-Cs, legal action was taken as a result. The Chancellor has now been asked to apologise for the comment by Prof. Bandhopadhyay, the former vice chancellor of Bankura University.
‘Such a collection of persons must be identifiable in the sense that one could with certainty say that particular group have been defamed as distinguished from the rest of the community,’ read the notice sent in response to the Governor’s remark.
A 50 lakh rupee fine and a 15 day apology deadline have been imposed on the Governor for ‘smearing the reputation and sullying the good image’ of Prof. Bandhopadhyay.
The warning further stated that failure to do so will force Prof. Bandhopadhyay to pursue the appropriate legal remedies for defamation, both civil and criminal.
The notice Prof. Bandhopadhyay addressed to the Governor, however, was attacked by the speaker of the Bengal Assembly. According to the constitution, a governor cannot be the target of either civil or criminal proceedings, according to Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee.
‘You cannot file a case, whether criminal or civil, against a Governor. It is written in the Constitution. It is nothing new. Ones who try to do this, do it for mere publicity,’ Biman Banerjee said.
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