Education department freezes bank accounts of varsities as VCs skip meeting

PATNA: The tussle between state education department and the Raj Bhavan intensified on Thursday. While the education department, in an unprecedented move, froze the bank accounts of all the universities and stopped payment of salaries to the vice-chancellors (VCs) until further orders for their absence in a review meeting convened by the department, the chancellor of universities has called a meeting of the VCs at Raj Bhavan on March 3 to “discuss the academic and administrative issues of higher education in the state”.

The education department has also decided to lodge an FIR against the authorities if a satisfactory explanation to the department’s show-cause notice is not received within the next two days.

The education department, in its letter issued to the VCs, registrars and examination controllers of different universities, took strong exception to their “conspicuous absence” from the meeting convened to discuss the issue of pending examinations in the universities and stated that by doing so they have failed to discharge their duties as public servants and violated the various sections of the Bihar Conduct of Examination Act, 1981.

“Hence, the university officials are liable for penal actions under sections 166 and 166 A of the IPC,” the letter read.
It may be recalled here that the department had, through its letter issued on February 20, asked the VCs, registrars and examination controllers of all the universities to attend a meeting on February 28 to discuss the status of pending examinations in the universities and other exam-related issues. However, in response to a query by the registrar of Purnea University, governorcum-chancellor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar did not allow the university officials to attend the meeting. The chancellor also asked the VCs and other officials of all the universities not to attend the two-day residential training programme convened by the department on March 2 and 3.

Keeping the chancellor’s directive in mind, the officials of all the universities, except the registrar of K S D Sanskrit University and the examination controllers of Magadh and K S D Sanskrit universities, did not turn up at the meeting convened to discuss ways for regularizing the examinations. However, the department is likely to initiate action against these officials under Sections 174, 175, 176, 179, 186 and 187 for their failure to attend the meeting and furnish the information sought by the department.

The department has issued show-cause notices to all these officials, asking them to furnish an explanation within two days failing which penal action would be initiated against them. Meanwhile, the payment of salaries of all these officials have been withheld and instructions have been issued to the banks not to operate any account of the universities concerned until further orders.


Legal experts assert that the reported tussle between the chancellor and the education department may lead to a constitutional crisis. The ‘tussle’ is not at all in the larger interest of higher education in the state, they maintain.

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