The Memorandum of Protest

The following “Memorandum of Protest” was submitted to the Most Rt. Rev. Moderator – President of the Governing Council of the American College two days prior to the meeting of  “THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE ISSUE” . The Committee was chaired by the most rev. moderator - bishop and the meeting was held in his chamber between 05.30 pm and 11.00pm on the 14.06.12

The meeting scheduled on 14^th June 2012 was supposed to have been arranged to discuss matters relating only to the reinstatement of the management teaching and non-teaching staff members who were NOT allowed to continue their work since 10^th December 2010 when Bishop Asir’s group illegally took possession of the college with the help of rowdies. These employees were without salary for more than 18 months.

The meeting became necessary as there were three different lists of management Teaching and Non-teaching staff members.

 List 1 - submitted by Dr. T. Chinnaraj Joseph Jaikumar, the outgoing Principal and Secretary on 30^th November 2010, who also had appointed most of them during his tenure. In fact, the Most Rt. Rev. Moderator initially invited Dr. TCJ to meet him on 15^th March 2012 to initiate talks on the reinstatement of management staff. One this invitation, Dr. TCJ first met the moderator with the list of management teaching and non-teaching staff on 15.03.2012.

List 2 – was submitted much later by Dr. PRA which had almost six of the teaching staff members names missing!

List 3 – was submitted by Mr. Davamani Christober and the list included 10 to 12 teaching staff members names when compared to Dr. TCJs list.

(for a comparison of the three lists see: http://saveamericancollege.blogspot.in/2012/06/moderators-peace-initiative-and.html)

Since there were three different lists, with varying numbers of management staff members, Moderator appointed a one man commission under Dr. P.P. Chellathurai to come-up with a “Correct list” of staff members to be reinstated.

Unfortunately Dr. P.P. chellathurai over reacted, used this opportunity to promote his own interests and went beyond the scope of his 'appointment' and came up with “unnecessary suggestions” that infuriated most of the faculty members.

Under these circumstances, a ‘Memorandum of Protest’ was prepared to be submitted to the Moderator. As it was summer vacation not all the faculty members could sign in the Memorandum. The Memorandum of Protest was submitted to the Most Rt. Rev. Moderator on 12.06.2012 by Prof. Prabahar, Prof. PremKumar and Prof. Winfred Thomas.

The Memorandum took strong exception to a report submitted by Dr. P. P. Chelladurai to the Moderator on 07.06.2012

Here is the Memorandum....

Memorandum of Protest to the Most Rt. Rev. Moderator-President of the Governing Council of the American College by the permanent members of the faculty of the American College against the Report submitted by Dr. PP. Chellathurai on Thursday 7 June 2012

                                                                                                12.06.2012

                                   

We, the undersigned permanent members of the American College Faculty, take strong exception to the report submitted by Dr PP. Chellathurai to the Moderator on Thursday 7 June 2012 recommending measures for promoting peace are ironically found to be much against the welfare of both the teaching and non-teaching staff in the management category and the ethos of the college.

1. The Report, instead of allowing all the management teaching and non-teaching staff members who were denied to carry out their routine work in the various departments since11.12.2012 and draw their salary from01.12.2012 due to unprecedented violence on the campus, has discriminated the employees against caste, religion, and years of service. The Honourable High Court of Madras dealing the same issue in its order W.P.(MD) NOs 16822 and 16823 of 2011 and MP numbers 1,2 1,2 3 3, 3 and 4 of 2011 dated 25 /8 /2011 allowed all the teaching and non-teaching staff members to resume work without any condition and draw their salary retrospectively from December 2012 since the problem was caused by the management and not by the staff..  Instead of delivering justice by following the spirit of the High Court Order and fixing December 2010 (01.12.2012) as the date reckoning  for all the management teaching and non-teaching staff to draw their salary, Dr PP. Chellathurai has arbitrarily proposed norms to eliminate some of the employees.  This is not only totally unacceptable but also strongly condemnable. We also see a partisan interest and collusion.
2. Without openly stating and  acknowledging the terms of reference of the Committee, Dr PP. Chellathurai has exceeded the brief by exhibiting scant respect to the Constitution of the Governing Council of the American College.  By undermining the Constitution, he has questioned the powers of the Principal and Secretary in matters related to the appointment of professors and workload, and he has recommended for committees on the amendments to the bye-laws and the Constitution.  Moreover, he has unnecessarily reflected on the administrative issues like the shifting of the courses to the new campus and withdrawal of court cases.  His observations and recommendations on these administrative issues are totally uncalled for and they amount to overreach.  He has usurped the collective powers of the Council. These reflections are nothing but veiled arguments and schemes to protect more than a hundred appointments thoughtlessly and illegally made in 18 months displacing permanent employees and legally appointed staff.
3. Very sadly the Report deliberately creates ill-will among the faculty and non-teaching staff members and it creates a rift in terms of religion and caste.  It has already created a lot of unrest in the campus.  In stead of acknowledging the time-honoured principles of social inclusiveness and religious pluralism that the College has been practising ever since its inception, it divides faculty and students along the lines of caste and religion.  The college has been following the admission policy of 50% quota for Christian students as mandated by the Supreme Court and the appointment policy of ‘the-other-things-being-equal-Christians-shall-be-preferred.’
4. The Report is indulging in an academic rigmarole of comparing and contrasting the same set of management teaching and non-teaching staff members differently in terms of religion, caste, group loyalty, and the like.  It has succeeded in creating more problems than solutions required. Dr. Chelladurai  should have consulted the records that show the list of employees who received their pay for the month of November 2010 and denied for December 2010.  The whole report is partisan, biased and ill-conceived and therefore an exercise in futility that deserves to be ignored.

We, therefore, pray that all the management/self-financing teaching and non-teaching staff members who were denied work and salary from the month of December 2010 be permitted to continue to work in the capacity that they were holding at that time without any condition, and draw salary retrospectively from December 2010 as was the case of the ordered of the Honourable High Court of Madras in disposing of the case of  the aided staff members, who faced the same predicament. Dr.Chelladurai Report must be ignored.