St Stephen's College authorities have threatened to take disciplinary action against its teachers for going ahead with their plan to hold elections of two teacher representatives to the Governing Body of the college.
A notice issued today by the College administration stated "the purported election notice dated December 7, issued by Dr Vijay Tankha claiming to be the returning officer, is illegal, completely without jurisdiction and in clear violation and contravention of the mandatory provisions of the Constitution of the St Stephen's Educational Society."
The notice issued by Warris K Masih, chairman of Supreme Council and Governing Body of the Society, also warned that "any person acting on the purported election notice by Dr Vijay Tankha on December 7, will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, as may be warranted under the circumstances."
Dr Tankha has already been served with an order to "desist" from proceeding further in the matter, the notice said.
The staff association of St Stephen's in its meeting on December 7 had decided to hold elections to the two vacant posts of Governing Body members as the College administration was not filling up the vacancies by teachers representatives, a teacher of the college said.
The election notice and appointment of Dr Tankha as election officer were decided in the meeting, he said.
However, St Stephen's principal Valson Thampu has alleged that when college notified for these two positions for elected teacher representatives not even a single teacher filed nomination.
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The other two contenders for the Principal's post were Karen Gabriel, a present member of St Stephen's English department and Susan Varghese of St John's College, Agra.
The newly appointed principal Varghese, is an alumnus of Loyola College and is presently a professor in EFLU's School of Interdisciplinary Studies. He served St Stephen's as an ad-hoc professor for two years during the 1990s.
