Chief Minister Narayan Rane had a marathon meeting on Saturday night with Sena supremo Bal Thackeray on the fate of Dr Deshmukh. According to a senior Sena leader, Thackeray is understood to have given his consent to Deshmukh's removal. It was also learnt that Thackeray expressed his displeasure over the manner in which the grace marks were given, in blatant violation of the rules.

Earlier the same day, Governor P C Alexander, at a high-level meeting attended by the chief minister had said that he was not empowered to sack the VC and that it was up to the state government to ask her to step down.Under the Maharashtra Universities Act (1994) the VC can be removed from the office if the Chancellor is satisfied that the incumbent has become insane and standsso declared by a competent court or has been convicted by court for any offence involving moral turpitude or has become an undischarged insolvent and stands so declared by a competent court.

Since in Deshmukh's case, none of these clauses are applicable, Alexander had expressed his inability to take a decision.

Following the marks scandal the governor had on March 26 given a show-cause notice to the VC asking her as to why the eight grace marks given to final-year MBBS students should not be set aside.

Subsequently, the governor rejected Deshmukh's reply and set aside the grace marks. He had also disapproved of the VC's recent interviews given to the media in which she claimed that there was no reason for her to resign.Snehalata Deshmukh was appointed as VC in March 1994 and her term ends in March 2000. However, sources in Shiv Sena add that with Thackeray having given the nod for the her removal, she is most likely to step down soon.Meanwhile, Deshmukh has convened a meeting of Board of Examinations(BoE) and deans of all medical colleges on Monday to take stock of the situation arising out of the chancellor's directives to set aside the grace marks.