By Vikram Kilpady
The motto of Sherwood College in Nainital is in Latin, Mereat Quisque Palmam, meaning, “Let each one merit his prize”. That seems to perfectly fit the ongoing and unseemly struggle for control over the highly rated institution. There are two rival Church of North India (CNI) dioceses vying with each other and a church that had amalgamated into the CNI also staking claim to the college’s parent society. The controversy has turned the reputed college, founded in 1869, into a battleground rather than a grooming ground, and affected the reputation of an institution that boasts some famous alumni.
Sherwood College has been the alma mater of Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw, filmstars Amitabh Bachchan, Kabir Bedi, and a host of other notables. It is now the centrepiece of the battle between the Sherwood Diocesan College Society, Nainital, and rival claimants, including its suspended principal, Amandeep Sandhu. The school sits on a large, sprawling campus on the Ayarpata Hill, one of the seven hills that surround Nainital Lake.
Hearing the Sherwood Diocesan College Society’s special leave petition seeking modification of an earlier order to allow it to manage the day-to-day affairs of the institution, the Supreme Court on February 28 directed the Civil Judge, Nainital, to complete the civil suit on the management of Sherwood College, Nainital, between the Society and others within the next six months. This is the second time, the apex court has set a timeframe; in February 2021, it had directed disposing of the suit in nine months. The Society moved the Supreme Court this year, seeking to modify the earlier order of 2021, since it wanted to re-establish control on the College, as its principal Amandeep Sandhu was running the college unchecked. Advocate Shariq Ahmed appeared for Sandhu.
The conflict has been on the news radar since October 2020 when the CNI Agra Diocese suspended principal Sandhu for what it called financial irregularities. The Society in its plea to the Supreme Court in 2021 had said that Sandhu had been sacked for not obtaining its approvals over the money spent from college finances. The Society then appointed Peter Dhiraj Emmanuel as the interim principal. But Emmanuel has been unable to take charge of the College since Sandhu and his officials did not allow him in nor ceded control. Emmanuel got police protection from the Uttarakhand High Court in December 2021, but the High Court ordered status quo without a change in administration. Two High Court judges had also recused themselves from the case. The Society then moved the Supreme Court leading to the first timeframe for the Civil Judge to end the dispute in nine months in 2021.
The deeper conflict lies between the CNI Agra Diocese (which has been managing the Society and College since 1976) and the CNI Lucknow Diocese (which ran the Society and College till 1976). Jumping into this scrap over control between two dioceses is the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon’s (CIPBC) Lucknow Diocese, which was one of the six churches whose merger led to the CNI, which also wants a place in the College’s governing body and the Society. The CIPBC has been attempting to stake a claim since 2010 but matters have now escalated with the split between the Agra and Lucknow dioceses over who is the boss of Sherwood College.
Sandhu has blamed the entire fracas as a conspiracy against him and has been defiant in saying he isn’t answerable to the Agra Diocese, which had in fact appointed him in 2004 and then confirmed him in 2008. The running of Sherwood College has become, literally, a holy mess.