St. Stephen's To Go Ahead With the Appointment of Its First Woman Principal Despite DU Objections

New Delhi: St. Stephen's College, Delhi, has confirmed it will go ahead with the appointment of Susan Elias, a computer scientist and academic administrator, as its 14th principal, despite objections from the University of Delhi. Elias, who is slated to become the first woman principal in the institution's 145-year history, is set to assume charge from June 1, 2026, as per a May 12 notification.

Within days of Elias' selection by the Supreme Council of St. Stephen's College in May, the Delhi University (DU) ordered a freeze on her appointment, citing non-compliance with the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations, 2018. DU also wrote to the UGC, seeking its intervention. The university argued that the selection panel should have included university-nominated higher education experts and a nominee of the Vice-Chancellor (VC), as St. Stephen's is a centrally funded college.

However, the college authorities have asserted that they proceeded according to the guidelines specified under Article 30(1) of the Indian Constitution, relying on the institution's minority status. The article grants religious and linguistic minorities the fundamental "right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice," encompassing the autonomy to appoint institutional heads and teaching staff.

A college official, on the condition of anonymity, told Press Trust of India (PTI) that Elias is expected to take over from former principal John Varghese on June 1, who has since been "absorbed as a faculty member in the English department, though there are a lot of ambiguities" surrounding the arrangement.

This development has resuscitated prevailing points of contention between DU and St. Stephen's, along with an ongoing court case over the recognition of Varghese's second term, which ended in February 2026. The protracted dispute between the institutions is also marked by past legal proceedings, such as a 2008 Delhi High Court judgement pertaining to the appointment of former principal Valson Thampu.

The court had ruled that, as a minority institution, St. Stephen's was not bound by Delhi University Ordinance's provisions concerning principal selection committees. Regardless, Thampu was not formally recognised by the university until much later in his tenure. According to PTI, an official reported that during the initial phase of his appointment, "his salary would not come from UGC but from a private fund of the college."

Elias' case is the latest addition to a series of bureaucratic attempts at enforcing regulatory control. Under similar circumstances, Karuna Gokarn's appointment as St. Xavier's College's principal was disputed by Maharashtra's Joint Director of Education and the University of Mumbai. The justification provided was identical: the college had failed to include VC and government nominated members in the selection panel. St. Xavier's subsequently moved to the Bombay High Court on the grounds of minority institution rights. As a result, Karuna Gokarn, an eminent microbiologist, was appointed as the college's first woman principal in 156 years.

The latest deadlock is expected to heighten tensions between the university and college administrations over matters of appointment, even as it celebrates Elias' historic designation as the first woman to have held the leadership position since 1881.

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