KUMAR PRABHAT
DUMKA
Sido Kanhu Murmu University has landed in fresh administrative turbulence after issuing an order to change the posting venues of 10 need-based assistant professors, terming the move an act of “shifting” rather than formal transfer or deputation. The administrative action was initiated on the basis of findings from an inquiry committee constituted to look into an internal conflict between faculty members and the then-acting principal at Mahila College, Madhupur.
Issued under University Notification No. 107/26 by the Registrar on the Vice-Chancellor’s orders, the directive reassigns six educators away from Mahila College, Madhupur, to other regional colleges while transferring four replacements inward. The outgoing faculty comprises Vikas Chandra Jha (Commerce) and Debashis Kumar (Physics) to AS College, Deoghar; Sunita Gope (Hindi) and Kiran Gupta (History) to Madhupur College, Madhupur; Jyoti Kumari (English) to Millat College, Parsa; and Rajni Kumari (Sociology) to Degree College, Maheshpur. Concurrently, Poonam Kujur (Hindi) and Dr. Ashwini Kumar (History) from Madhupur College, Shailesh Mishra (Sociology) from Degree College, Maheshpur, and Ujjwal Kumar Bhaskar (Political Science) from BSK College, Barharwa, have been deployed to Mahila College, Madhupur.
The campus community and academic observers have raised strong objections, arguing that moving faculty from one constituent institution to another is a transfer in practical effect, regardless of label changes. The decision invites critical scrutiny regarding whether invoking “shifting” is merely a linguistic workaround to sidestep governance rules.
The move places the university on a collision course with regulatory norms, particularly following Raj Bhavan’s September 2025 directives that expressly barred transfers and deputations for need-based faculty across state universities. While previous non-compliant orders had to be rescinded following that directive, SKMU’s revival of cross-college reassignments after nearly a year has intensified the spotlight on how the Chancellor’s office and the state higher education department will respond to this administrative maneuver.
