Despite the government’s last-minute move to grant him an extension, she directed that Dr Shetye, who served three years as VC, be relieved on Friday. That, however, didn’t happen as on Friday the government issued an ordinance to pave the way for the extension of the VC’s term by a year. This unnecessary imbroglio over the VC’s term of office definitely does not bode well for higher education in the State.
When in 2012 Dr Shetye was appointed to the post of VC, the government was aware of his age and the regulations governing the term of a VC of the University. The government was aware that Dr Shetye would be able to serve just three years of a five-year term and, if it was their intention at that time that the VC should serve a full five years, it should have been more circumspect in the appointment. Not once in the past three years did the government give any indication of its intention to consider extending the term of the VC. It didn’t also start the process of finding a successor for the VC, which it should have done some months in advance. It is only this month that the government suddenly initiated the process to grant Dr Shetye an extension asking the University’s Executive Council to call for an emergency meeting to amend the statutes.
In the given circumstances Sinha, by refusing to change the statutes, had perhaps taken the best decision possible, for in doing so she followed the spirit of the law. It has been pointed out by a former professor of the University that the proposed change in statutes would be in violation of the Goa University Amendment Act, May 2006, Clause 15 (B) that bars the University from making any statute dealing with the retirement age or granting an extension to any University employee. Here is a peculiar case of the government that through legislation has prevented the University from making changes and is then directing the same University to break that very law. It indicates that the government has not thought out this properly and is acting on a whim rather than with a plan. And when it found that a change of statutes would not work, it took the ordinance route to make the necessary changes possible.
The sudden haste shown in the attempt to extend the VC’s term places an unwarranted blemish on the career of Dr Shetye who had earlier served the National Institute of Oceanography as Director and then Goa University as Vice Chancellor. He definitely didn’t deserve a controversy of this sort on the eve of his retirement, and if anybody is to be faulted for this it should be those who proposed the service extension without thinking it through. Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar is on record stating that Dr Shetye never sought an extension to his term. It is, therefore, the government that mismanaged the succession of the VC and this has led to this current state of affairs of the Governor directing the University to relieve the VC and then the government passing an ordinance to overrule the governor.
How this will be played out still remains to be seen and, whether the Governor has the last word or the government has it, will be known only on Monday. If on Monday the government is still able to take forward its proposal to grant the VC an extension, then it will lead to undermining the Governor’s, and in this case also the Chancellor’s, authority. In this, the mishandling of the situation, the government has not only managed to tarnish Dr Shetye’s image but could also do the same to the Governor.
