CSI in quandary over college row

Chennai – The Church of South India (CSI) is in a quandary, according to CSI Madras diocese bishop Rev. Dr. V. Devasahayam, who has alleged that some criminal elements have usurped control over four prestigious CSI colleges and are fraudulently trying to alienate the affairs of the institutions from the church body.

Certain individuals, who the bishop refused to name, had effected "drastic alterations" to the aims and objectives of Madras Christian College (MCC) in Tambaram, Women's Christian College in Nungambakkam, Meston Training College in Royapettah and St. Christopher Training College in Vepery, since 1991.

While the first two institutions were established by the Church of Scotland, the Meston College was instituted by Methodist Missionaries and the St. Christopher College.

Addressing the media, the bishop said on October 10 that a small group of by London Missionaries. Post–Independence, these institutions were brought under the control of the CSI.

The institutions were under the control of the CSI till 1980. However, in the eighties, persons nominated by the CSI to administer these institutions fraudulently usurped control of the colleges, betraying the trust of the Church.

"Being church property, there are certain restrictions. Legal options are being studied," he said. “We are still trying to convince the persons to hand back control of the institutions to the CSI.”

There is a widespread feeling that academic quality of the institutions has suffered, he added.

According to the bishop, under the constitution of the colleges, the Church–nominated persons to the governing body of its colleges for a specified period. However, recently some persons were trying to exert control over four of its prestigious colleges in the city by nominating family members and friends to the governing councils of the institutions, he reported.

The Diocese has formed a CSI Christian Colleges Retrieval Committee in this regard.

According to the bishop, the missionaries had started the institutions to provide education for social development, empowerment of women, Dalits and the downtrodden and for educating Christian priests.

But, at different points of time in the 1980s, the WCC, Meston and the St. Christopher colleges, which were registered under the Societies Act, were secretly registered under the Companies Act.

The cardinal principle was that the institutions would be administered by persons nominated by the church on a time–bound basis. However, those nominated to the Governing Council fraudulently altered the clauses and made themselves life members, besides abrogating the power to nominate or expand the council, Bishop Devasahayam alleged.

“By the time the church woke up to this alleged fraud, it was almost a decade and since the nineties, we have been prevailing upon the Governing Council members and Christian leaders to restore the college administration to the church, but in vain,” he said.

As a result of this, nepotism has crept into the functioning of the institutions and the missionary zeal with which the institutions were established is no longer honoured, he charged.

Bishop Devasahayam also said that Protestant students and teachers were not being given priority in admissions and promotions respectively.

“Persons who do not belong to the Protestant community are at the helm of affairs in the four institutions now. Governing Council members are, by design, bringing in non–Protestant members into the administration to alienate the church,” he said.

“We will organise public meetings and also examine legal options to retrieve the colleges as the CSI Madras Diocese, which represents 35 lakh people, is the legitimate heir to these institutions,” the bishop concluded.