St Stephen’s terminates 2 assistant professors appointed during ex-principal’s tenure over irregularities

St Stephen’s College has terminated the services of assistant professors appointed during the tenure of former principal John Varghese, after an inquiry found anomalies in the appointments made in the departments of chemistry and Hindi.

Following the findings of a committee constituted by new principal Susan Elias and the decision of the governing body in its meeting held on September 29, 2026, the two faculty were asked to resign.

The assistant professor from the chemistry department complied. The Hindi appointee refused and was handed a termination letter on October 7, a copy of which is with Careers360.

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St Stephen's: 25 appointments before John Varghese exit

On May 9, 2026, 25 assistant professors were appointed to various departments. The appointment had taken place just a few weeks before the tenure of former principal John Varghese ended.

On May 13, the ad-hoc faculty moved the Delhi High Court. The court stayed the recruitment process observing that it “raises pertinent questions that require consideration”.

Delhi University (DU) had also constituted a committee to look into the matter. According to a report by Hindustan Times, the university committee had also found that the college had violated the shortlisting criteria approved by the varsity's statutory body.

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St Stephen’s panel reviewed all 25 appointments

Elias took over as the new principal on June 1, 2026 and constituted a committee that looked into all the 25 appointments. On its recommendation, action was initiated against two appointees. Both had been selected against an Unreserved (UR) vacancy and are Christian candidates.

The Hindi appointee was issued a show-cause notice on September 15 and a personal hearing provided on September 29. After reviewing his documents and a hearing, St Stephen’s College concluded that he did not fulfill the screening criteria, which stated that candidates should have drawn salary under the Seventh Central Pay Commission structure

Further it was also found that the candidate had counted marks of a fellowship for doctoral study in the overall score. But the rule states that the "Junior/Senior research fellowship/non-net fellowship/post-doctoral fellowship cannot be included as awards for calculating the academic score." The marks claimed for teaching experience were also not true, it was found.

The letter stated, “You did not submit a valid experience certificate with your application. The certificate furnished by you was silent as to the pay drawn by you.Those documents, being your own (submitted later), establish that your appointment at that college was not a permanent appointment but was made and renewed from year to year, and that the emoluments drawn by you did not satisfy the condition.”

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It was found that the actual score of the candidate was 76.67 out of 100, short of the 78-mark cutoff fixed for calling candidates for interview for the post of Assistant Professor in the Hindi department.

“You were, therefore, not eligible to be called for interview, and were called on the strength of information furnished by you in your application which was incorrect in material particulars and which withheld facts material to the computation of your score,” the letter added.