Full-time principal: SC relief for 53 more colleges

A vacation bench of the Supreme Court on Monday granted permission to 53 colleges in the state to admit students for the academic year 2010-11, subject to the condition that they appoint full-time principals as per the eligibility norms within six months, starting June 28.

The city-based Progressive Education Society's three colleges are among those which received the SC relief after it had moved a special leave petition along with 50 other colleges. The apex court bench, comprising Justices R M Lodha and A K Patnaik, also directed the colleges to furnish details of the steps being taken to fill the principals' post.

The issue arises from the landmark judgment by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court in December 2008, directing all government-run, aided and unaided academic institutions, operating without key officials like principals or directors, to fill up the posts by May 31, 2009.

The high court had then laid a time-bound programme for state universities to ensure that the colleges meet the appointments' deadline. It also specified punitive action against defaulting colleges, like ban on admissions to first-year degree courses, and even disaffiliation process in case of continuing default.

A large number of academic institutions had then moved the Supreme Court against the high court verdict and had secured relief in terms of one-year extension of deadline till May 31, 2010.

However, things changed little as many colleges continue to operate without full-time principals, despite repeated notices by the concerned state universities. Some of the colleges did comply with the court directives, but many others, especially the professional colleges, like law, engineering and pharmacy institutions, cited genuine difficulty in securing PhD-qualified candidates for principals' posts as per the eligibility norms set by the University Grants Commission.

State universities, including the University of Pune (UoP), in the meantime, took a firm stand on the issue by declaring that they would go ahead with the court directives of banning admissions to first-year degree courses for 2010-11, on account of failure to meet the May 31, 2010,
deadline.

This led to a fresh round of legal process before the apex court as many institutes started filing special leave petitions. Earlier this month, over 40 colleges in the state secured relief from the court when the latter gave them a fresh six-month deadline to make the key appointments. The relief was construed by a section of institutions as an across-the-board benefit for all those colleges which had failed to appoint principals. Although, the universities debated the same by saying that they would follow the court's order and allow admissions only at institutions which have secured the court's relief.

Gajanan Ekbote, chairman, Progressive Education Society, said, "We argued in our petition that we have taken genuine effort to fill the key posts, but there are practical issues in finding qualified candidates." The colleges will continue with their effort to fill the posts, he added.