High Court verdict on appointment of St. Mary’s College principal
SHILLONG: A recent verdict related to the appointment of Principal of St. Mary’s College, Laitumkhrah, Shillong has far reaching ramifications as all the existing appointments of principals of colleges which avail grant-in-aid (deficit colleges) will have to be reviewed by the Government.
While dismissing the petition of Sister Isabella Kyrsian, Principal of Saint Mary’s College, who was removed from the post of the Principal, the Judge N K Singh said that under rule 4 of the Assam Aided Colleges Employees Rules, 1960, there will be a Selection Board consisting of five members .
The Selection Board after scrutiny of particulars and after interview, if necessary, will prepare a list of candidates in order of preference and will forward the list so prepared to the Governing Bodies of the respective institutions.
The same procedure also applies in the case of regular appointments of lecturers and office assistants
The Governing Body of the college will obtain prior approval from the concerned Director of Public Instruction who is part of the Selection Board for the appointment of the selected candidate as Principal.
As far as St Mary’s college is concerned, since the Assam Aided Colleges Employees Rules, 1960 was not followed , the Court ruled that the petitioner Sister Isabella Kyrsian was never appointed as Principal of St. Mary’s College, Shillong though she was holding the post since 2007.
The main reason was that there was no advertisement for appointment to the post of Principal of St. Mary’s College, and there was no recommendation of the duly constituted Selection Board for appointment of the petitioner.
The current system is that the board of management of the congregation or the governing body of the colleges recommend the name of the Principals of colleges and subsequently it is approved by the Director of Higher and Technical Education