Colleges without principals get nod for admission

“We had challenged Nagpur High Court’s order that had barred admission to 353 state colleges as they had no full-time principals. We argued that despite genuine efforts,colleges were unable to get suitable candidates for the post,” said advocate Shivaji Jadhav,Supreme Court lawyer who represented the 53 colleges.

After hearing the arguments,a two-member bench of the Supreme Court — Justice R M Lodha and Jutsice A K Patnaik — granted permission to the 53 colleges to admit students for the academic year 2010-2011,Jadhav said.

Progessive Education Society’s Modern College of Special Education,Modern College of Commerce and Computer Science,Modern College of Pharmacy,NIBR’s Novel Institute of Management Studies,Chinchwad,K J’s Educational Institute,Pisoli are few of the colleges from Pune that have received the permission.

When contacted,Gajanan Ekbote,chairman of Progressive Educational Society,said,“We welcome the Supreme Court decision. We have been trying to appoint the principal,but were not able to find an appropriate candidate. The process is taking time and the SC’s decision has come as a relief.” He added that the UoP had earlier refused the permission to 44 colleges under its jurisdiction. These colleges along with nine others had collectively approached the SC seeking permission to admit students and more time to appoint full-time principals.

The SC had earlier set a deadline of May 31,2010 to colleges in Maharashtra to appoint full-time qualified principals and directors. This has now been extended by six months.