The Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) of Delhi University (DU) will for the first time ever get a woman principal. Simrit Kaur, a professor from the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), will soon be taking over as the principal of the SRCC. The college, which is widely acclaimed as one of the best institutions for higher studies, was without a full-time principal since 2014.
Simrit Kaur was selected to be the principal by the Delhi University’s apex committee on May 12. The other two candidates who were shortlisted for the post were professor Anil Kumar, a teacher at the college, and C P Gupta, a teacher at the Department of Financial Studies, South Campus.
Simrit Kaur has been a teacher at Delhi University’s Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce. Also, she is an alumnus of the Lady Shri Ram College for Women which is a trust run college. Kaur completed her Masters from the Delhi School of Economics and PhD from FMS.
There is a dispute over her appointment. The members of the university Executive Council (EC) say that rules of the university ordinance were not followed during the constitution of the apex committee.
According to an EC member, J L Gupta, “the rule 7 (2) (b) for the appointment of the principal of colleges other than maintained by the university states that the apex committee should consist of Vice-Chancellor, Pro V-C, visitor’s nominee, chairperson of the college governing body and two members of EC, nominated by it. However, we as EC members never nominated anyone. In fact, we came to know of it after the appointment.”
Gupta further added that there was only one EC nominee, M K Pandit, in the committee.
Countering the comments of the dispute over her appointment, the chairman of the college governing body Ajay Shriram, said all rules were followed in the appointment process.
