A PIL challenging the Calcutta University’s (CU) decision to honour West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with a D. Litt has been filed before the Calcutta High Court and is likely to be heard on Wednesday.
The CU has announced that it will bestow the honorary D. Litt on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, an alumnus, for her contribution to social service at its convocation on January 11.
“We have filed a PIL, challenging the decision of the university on several grounds of her ineligibility which we will place before the high court during the hearing,” lawyer Shamim Ahmed said on Tuesday.
The petition claimed that the decision of the syndicate and senate of the university to honour Banerjee with a D. Litt was arbitrary and devoid of any proper reasoning.
“The members of the university senate are appointed by the state government, which is headed by Banerjee. The same people have decided to honour the chief minister with the honorary D. Litt,” Ahmed claimed.
The PIL will be moved before a spanision bench of Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya on Wednesday, he added.
The convocation will be held at the Nazrul Mancha auditorium in south Kolkata, instead of the institution’s own Centenary Hall on its College Street campus.
