HC orders tribunal to settle college-faculty standoff in 2 months

The Punjab and Haryana high court has ordered the educational tribunal, Punjab, to hear and dispose of the current litigation between faculty members and Akal Degree College for Women, Sangrur, within two months.

The court declined to intervene in the matter and dismissed a plea made by the faculty asking for orders so that admissions to the BA course are made for the 2025-26 session and not hindered, directly or indirectly, by the college.

In 2020, the college had decided to scrap the course due to poor admissions. Since then, almost 10 teachers and the college administration have been in litigation at different forums. The 53-year-old aided college affiliated to Punjabi University, Patiala, had also experienced protests from farm unions and local bodies against the move. Its management was suspended in April 2022 for "misusing funds" by the state government.

Even though the court acknowledged that members of faculty might suffer inconvenience because of the discontinuation of the course, it noted that "such collateral detriment, howsoever genuine, does not ipso facto invest them with requisite locus standi to assail the administrative decision of College in question as also the society in question, by way of a writ petition, before this court.". Personal sentiments or inconvenience, however intense, cannot bestow a justiciable right to challenge such a decision made by the college," the court observed sending back the case to the tribunal.

The bench also made it clear that it had not decided the case on merits, particularly since one set of petitions is already listed for hearing before the tribunal. The case has been remitted to the tribunal for determination within the specified time