Rule change queers pitch for 4 college heads

GAYA: The 2017 amendment to the Bihar State Universities Act has queered the pitch for at least four principals aged between 62-65 years. The amendment passed by the state legislature on April 24 will become effective after the governor’s approval and subsequent notification in the state gazette.
The affected principals include College of Arts, Science and Commerce-Patna’s Baban Singh, K S M College-Aurangabad’s Raj Kishori Devi, Patna law College-Patna’s Rakesh Verma and M P College-Muzaffarpur’s Shafiq Alam.
According to Federation of Bihar University Service Teachers Associations of Bihar’s president and former Bihar minister Ram Jatan Sinha, the April 24 amendment only confirms the non-teaching status of principals since 2012 till date.
In 2012, principals were removed from the category of teachers, thereby making them non-teaching employees of the university. The superannuation age of university teachers is 65 while non-teaching employees retire at the age of 62.
Earlier, both the state government and MU, through separate affidavits filed in the Patna high court, confirmed the non-teaching status of the principals.
Demanding immediate removal of principals who have already attained 62 years of age, Sinha said the amendment, if approved by the governor, would come into effect from the date of gazette publication and, as such, the continuation of such principals who have crossed the superannuation age of non-teaching employees was illegal.
Former state director (higher education) Nageshwar Sharma also said that in the absence of retrospective effectiveness of the amendment, continuation of principals above 62 years of age would be untenable.
According to Federation of University Teachers Association of Bihar’s acting president Kanhaiya Bahadur, the amendment has further complicated the issue. By introducing the amendment, the government has inadvertently confirmed the non-teaching status of the principals whereas the fact was that principals were integral part of the teaching fraternity and they can not be deprived of teaching category status on some minor technical ground.
“The amendment will harm the cause of the principals,” said Kanhaiya Bahadur.
Patna University’s Prof Shiv Jatan Thakur, who first raised the issue of principal’s status vis a vis the 2012 amendment of the university Act, said the issue was not limited to MU. Several principals across the state were continuing in office in a legally questionable manner, said Thakur.
He said he would challenge the validity of the Act amendment on the ground of it being violative of the provisions of para 1 of the UGC Regulation 2010, which recognises only professors, associate professors and assistant professors as teacher.