‘Cover-up, conflict of interest’: Visva Bharati prof files RTI, VBUFA says facts buried in disciplinary cases

Four years after being suspended, reinstated, and left waiting for his salary arrears, a Visva Bharati professor turned to the Right to Information (RTI) Act to find out what happened to two committees that were supposed to settle his case – and dozens like it.

Sudipta Bhattacharyya ’s RTI application, filed on July 28, 2026, has landed amid a broader faculty revolt with the Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association (VBUFA) now accusing the university administration of suppressing facts in disciplinary cases that have sat unresolved for years.

The RTI comes against the backdrop of disciplinary proceedings initiated during the tenure of former vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty. The university had appointed a committee in 2024, headed by Justice Pranab Kumar Chattopadhyay, to review several such cases. After current VC Probir Kumar Ghosh, assumed office in 2025, this committee was discontinued and replaced with a three-member civilian committee – all of whom were Executive Council (EC) members drawing pay or pension from the university.

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VBUFA has flagged this decision as a conflict of interest and sought clarity on findings of both the committees. In an email to the VC and registrar on August 17, VBUFA called for long-pending show-cause notices and chargesheets to be withdrawn and cases closed. The association said several proceedings had dragged on for years without the committees meeting the concerned faculty or submitting reports.

“The apprehension that facts are being suppressed has a basis because, recently, hardly any RTI reply has been provided within the time and without suppression of information,” the letter to the VC read.

Visva Bharati: RTI seeks two committees’ reports

Bhattacharyya's RTI application seeks copies of the report of the Justice Chattopadhyay Committee as well as that of the subsequent three-member committee.

The issue, Bhattacharyya said, is significant because Visva Bharati had earlier assured the Calcutta High Court in several cases that it would abide by the recommendations of the Justice Committee – a commitment the VBUFA said was undermined when the panel was discontinued midway and its unfinished work, along with review of its existing findings, were handed over to the three-member committee.

VBUFA has alleged that this creates a “clear conflict of interest” and claimed there were reasons to believe that recommendations of the three-member committee had modified or superseded those of the Justice Committee.

VBUFA said that if the information is not provided within the stipulated period, Bhattacharyya may pursue the first and second appeals under the RTI Act.

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Visva Bharati Faculty Row: Bhattacharyya's case

VBUFA’s August 17 communication specifically raises Bhattacharyya's own disciplinary proceedings – the one driving the RTI application. He was suspended from January 7, 2021 to September 29, 2022 – a move arising from a complaint he had filed over an alleged irregular appointment. The VBUFA Bhattacharyya had obtained the documents supporting his complaint through an RTI application from Visva-Bharati.

Four years on, his arrear salary for the suspension period – about one year and nine months – remains unpaid and his service unregularised.

The association, in the email, has also raised questions about the legal basis of the proceedings against the teachers. It claimed that the disciplinary committee constituted in the matter never met Bhattacharyya and did not submit a report.

It said that show-cause notices, chargesheets, suspension orders and other documents relating to disciplinary action were issued by the registrar. Citing Visva-Bharati's Statute 5(4)(a), the VBUFA contended that the registrar has no power to initiate disciplinary action against teachers, and such notices, therefore, were “without jurisdiction” and should be set aside.

VBUFA has demanded the withdrawal of show-cause notices and chargesheets, including those involving Bhattacharyya and another former VBUFA leader Kausik Bhattacharya.

VBUFA alleges selective handling

The August 17 email goes beyond individual cases and questions the overall manner in which the university is handling old disciplinary proceedings.

VBUFA said while some pending disciplinary matters involving serving or retired professors had recently been cleared, fresh penalties had also been imposed on some employees, including compulsory retirement or withholding of promotion. It also alleged that retirement benefits of some employees had been held up because of pending disciplinary proceedings.

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The association described the administration's handling of the cases as “arbitrary, haphazard, ad hoc, and selective”. It has asked the university to set a deadline for settling all pending disciplinary matters and to clear salary and pension dues of employees.

It has also called for compliance with court orders in cases involving faculty members and other staff with all chargesheets and penalties withdrawn.

The VBUFA pointed out that the issue of promotion of another academic, Anindita Saha, an associate professor in the department of agricultural extension at Palli Siskha Bhavan is also stuck for years despite a Calcutta HC order in her favour in August, 2024. Saha became eligible for promotion in 2016 but had been made to wait until 2020 to be redesignated.

Calls to Visva Bharati’s VC office, his personal secretary and registrar went unanswered when this report was filed. The story will be updated as and when there is a response.