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Stephen’s faculty divided

Staff Reporter

Senior member supports Council’s decision on Christian quota

NEW DELHI: The letter written by the Chairman of the Supreme Council and Governing Body of St. Stephen’s College, Bishop Sunil Kumar Singh, to the heads of all departments on relaxing the cut-offs to fill the quota for Christian candidates seems to have created a rift among the college faculty members.

A senior faculty member in the Department of Mathematics, Nandita Narain, has written to Bishop Sunil Singh countering a missive sent by the three teacher representatives on the Governing Body who had alleged that the Body had been “bypassed” by the Supreme Council in announcing the admission policy for the new academic year.

“I totally disagree with the contention in the letter that the Supreme Council has usurped the authority of the Governing Body. In their reading of the college constitution, my colleagues seem to have completely ignored the import of Clauses 3, 4 and 11. Clause 11 states that all matters pertaining to religious instruction or religious character of the college will be the sole concern of the Council and its decision on these matters will be binding on the Governing Body,” Dr. Narain said in her letter.

However, some senior teachers of the college pointed out how all the three above mentioned clauses were “superseded” by Clause 5, which barred the Council from the arena of administration.

“Even if we say that the Supreme Council is trying to maintain the religious character of the college, the fact is that when it decided to reduce the weightage given to interviews from 15 per cent to 10 per cent this year, it has interfered with the admission of non-Christian candidates,” they argued.

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