Alleging that St Stephen's College Governing Body has approved amendments to its 102-year-old constitution despited it being "truncated", the institution's staff association today approached principal Valson Thampu demanding that due elections for teacher representatives in the GB be urgently conducted.
The 18-member Governing Body (GB) of the college is supposed to have four teacher representatives. However, at present there are only two nominees as elections for the remaining two are due.
Stephen's had approved certain amendments in its constitution in a meeting of the GB on Monday despite eight out of 18 members including the teacher nominees abstaining from the same, resulting in a truncated GB.
However, Thampu as well as the GB members are tight-lipped about whether the amendment draft was passed as proposed or with certain changes.
"The staff association today decided to ask Thampu to immediately hold the elections as any decision taken by a truncated GB is deemed as illegal," a staff association member said.
Thampu, who is retiring in February next year, had come up with a draft amendment in which he had proposed that the principal be empowered to take disciplinary action against students or staff members, irrespective of the GB's opinion.
Thampu has also called for giving a major say to the
Church of North India (CNI) in the functioning of the college, handing over the powers to appoint faculty and admissions to its Supreme Council (SC) and recasting the composition of the Governing Body (GB).
The amendment also proposes to replace St Stephen's College Trust, which currently runs the college, with a St Stephen's Educational Society that will have the power to establish Stephen's-like private institutions across the country.
The college staff has demanded that the GB is in full attendance before the next meeting scheduled three months later in which a final call will be taken on the amendments.
Thampu had last week pulled up the members of staff association for talking to media about the amendment proposal and had asked them to exercise "responsible restraint" regarding the issue.
The move to amend the constitution has also attracted the ire of the college alumni who have termed it to be an attempt to make St Stephen's a "Christian ghetto", Thampu has been maintaining that it is the Supreme Council's decision to make the amendments and there has been no violation of procedures or law.
