Govt demotes 17 college principals on HC order

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 25

Following an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the government has demoted 17 college principals. There are 48 government colleges in the state. With these demotions, 27 are left without regular principals.

The court order pertained to a dispute over the issue of seniority of college lectures on the basis of which they were promoted as principals.

According to an order issued on Friday by the Secretary, Higher Education, 17 principals have been demoted as lectures and have been asked to join their pervious place of posting with immediate effect. All of them were promoted in March. However, Manjit Singh Saini, a teacher of Government Mohindra College, Patiala, from the same cadre, had challenged the promotions on the basis that the seniority list was wrong and some of the promoted teachers were not eligible.

Last month, the court had found merit in his plea and asked the government to quash the promotions.

The state government will now restructure the merit list. However, the order has left a large number of colleges without a regular head. At present, there are just 21 colleges in the state in which regular principals are serving. Even out of these, nine principals are on extension.

The affected principals have alleged that their case was not defended properly by the government. Prof Rabinder Nath Sharma, member, senate, Panjab University, said it seemed that officials of the department had pursued the entire matter casually in the court.

VK Meena, Secretary, Higher Education, expressed inability to comment on the issue. “We are working on the case and we need some time to share the final course of action,” he said.

27 colleges left without heads 

• There are 48 government colleges in the state. With these demotions, 27 are left without regular principals. 
• The court order pertained to a dispute over the issue of seniority of college lectures on the basis of which they were promoted as principals.