The Bombay high court has sought a review of the appointment of principals
The Bombay high court has sought a review of the appointment
of principals, teaching faculty and librarians at all the colleges offering computer
science courses, which were granted affiliation from academic year 2008-09 onwards
by the University of Pune (UoP).
The bench has directed the UoP vice-chancellor to constitute a committee of three
to five members to undertake the review.
All future decisions relating to continuation of affiliation to these colleges should
be based on such committees report, the high court division bench of justices B
H Marlapalle and Nishita Mhatre ruled in a 12-page order on Thursday.
The bench was disposing off the writ petition filed by a private unaided college
at Narhe near the city. The petitioner-college had challenged the UoP academic councils
resolution of September 29, 2010, and the vice-chancellors order of October 18, 2010,
refusing affiliation to its M.Sc (Computer Science) course for 2010-11.
The courts observation relating to the review exercise, which came as the concluding
remark in the order, raises concern over the existing state of principals and teaching
appointments at the computer science colleges affiliated in recent years.
In a large number of colleges for which permission/ affiliation has been granted
by the university on certain conditions, and to run courses in computer science
from year 2008-09 onwards, the principal as well as teaching faculty members have
not yet been appointed. The fact has not been disputed by the university, the bench
observed.
In our considered opinion, the university should not compromise on the requirement
of qualified faculty in these colleges, the order stated.
The petitioner-college had sought a conditional affiliation while challenging the
varsitys refusal of affiliation to the M.Sc (Computer Science) course for 2010-11.
The university had thrice rejected this colleges plea for affiliation since academic
year 2008-09, on the basis of the reports of three separate local inquiry committees,
which had inspected the college.
The committees had recommended that the college should not be granted affiliation
owing to glaring deficiencies relating to building infrastructure, classroom space
vis-vis accommodation of sanctioned number of students and inadequate faculty, among
others.
The third of these reports had pointed out that the college had only one teaching
faculty member at the relevant time and only 15 students were admitted as against
the sanctioned intake of 80 students.
Courtesy: Times of India
