Even as the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has ordered the state government to fill all vacant posts of principals by May 31, the representatives of the institutes feel it is difficult to do so as they do not have eligible candidates.

This was revealed in a meeting called by the University of Pune (UoP) where the office bearers of the parent organisations of the colleges that come under the jurisdiction of the UoP were present. The representatives also appealed the UoP to see if it could go to the high court requesting to extend the May 31 deadline.

The Nagpur bench on December 6 had ordered the state government to fill all the vacant posts of principals in colleges across the state before May 31. Following the order, the state universities had geared up the process to fill in the posts by asking the institutes to speed up the process.

There are around 300 colleges, in the jurisdiction of UoP, without full-time principals.

Considering this large number, Vice Chancellor Narendra Jadhav convened a meeting of institute owners on Sunday to appeal to them to speed up the process and around 300 representatives of the institutes attended.

According to sources, “Many colleges have not filled the posts of the principals as they do not have experienced candidates for the post. The eligibility criteria for the post are PhD and a qualified teacher with more than five years teaching experience. It is difficult for most institutes to find such candidates.”

In the backdrop of the high court’s decision, the UoP had asked all its affiliated colleges to submit a list of the eligible probable candidates. “The representatives of the institutes asked the UoP to analyse the data and accordingly request the high court to extend the deadline,” said an office bearer of one of the institutes present for the meeting. The members also brought to the notice of the UoP that if the university changes its statutes that are 29 years old, it can solve the issue to some extent.

“The UGC, AICTE or MCI have accepted to extend the age limit of the principals to 65 which was previously 60. If the UoP makes amendments to its statutes, it can also extend the age of the principals to 65 and thus many candidates will be available for the principal’s post,” said a representative present for the meeting.

The vice chancellor assured the representatives to take up the issue in the managemnet council meeting to be held on February 25.