The state's oldest law school, Government Law College, Churchgate, is again headless. RB Malik, who took charge as the principal in September 2011, put in his papers last month. He has joined the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal.
Malik who is currently in Raipur, confirmed the development. Speaking to dna over phone, he said: "I have been a judge my whole life. The college was not my cup of tea. The government must bring in some academician now."
Malik was the president of the state industrial tribunal and a judicial official in the rank of a district judge when he was brought to the GLC by Rajesh Tope, higher and technical education minister, owing to mounting pressure from Yuva Sena and the law and judiciary department. There was also a strong demand from academicians to remove the then principal in-charge, Manjusha Molwane, also the joint director, who wasn't qualified to head the college as she held a degree in home science.
The new development, weeks ahead of the admission season, could also spell trouble for the state government as the joint director of higher education, Manjusha Molwane, is back at the helm of the college once again and the issue of non-eligibility would crop up once again. The issued had remained on the back burner due to the Lok Sabha polls. Her previous stint as the principal in-charge, from April 2011 to September the same year, was marred by controversy with the admission policy being challenged in the court, forcing the college to revise the merit list.
Malik had reportedly expressed his desire to quit many times in the past two years. However, the government hadn't been able to get an academician to lead the ace institution, which has been the alma mater of Dr BR Ambedkar, former president Pratibha Patil and former chief justice YV Chandrachud.
"Joint director (Mumbai region) Manjusha Molwane has been given the additional charge of principal in-charge," confirmed Ashok Yende, HOD of Law at Mumbai University, who is also a member of the GLC governing council. The council has been asked to appoint a new principal.
Neither Tope nor Molwane responded to calls.
GLC losing its sheen
After PR Rao retired as the principal on June 30, 2009, the GLC has not had a regular principal. Critics blame the callous approach of the department for this while the department blames it on "money mindedness" of the city advocates, for whom academics is a lower grade job.
The college has slowly been losing its sheen. Bright students now flock to the National Law School, Bangalore and other famed law universities in the country. A special grant of Rs 35 crore sanctioned in 2006 by the then higher and technical education minister Dilip Walse-Patil, himself a product of GLC, and a fresh special financial assistance of Rs 5 crore, approved when Walse-Patil was the finance minister in the subsequent years, have lapsed since no steps had been taken to utilise these funds.
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