KAT stays selection of government college Principals

The Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT) has stayed the selection list prepared by the State government for Principals of government arts and science colleges. The tribunal has halted any further proceedings related to the list for two weeks.

The issue arose after Varghese Jacob, Principal of the Government College, Kottayam, filed a petition alleging that the selection process violated the UGC Regulations, 2018. He contended that the selection committee had used research scores as the sole criterion to rank candidates, ignoring seniority in the process. He also raised concerns about the inclusion of articles published in unrecognised journals, including college magazines, in the evaluation.

110 applications

In his response, the Director of Collegiate Education submitted that a total of 110 candidates had applied for the 51 vacant Principal positions. The process involved assessing candidates based on their research guidance, patents, awards and other achievements. On the basis of a scrutiny by subject experts and evaluation by the selection committee, 91 candidates were deemed eligible for the posts. The selection committee subsequently selected 51 applicants in order of merit.