New Delhi, July 15: The heads of departments at Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College today refused to register new students for the first time in the institution’s 126-year history after the administration rejected demands to revoke controversial religion-based faculty appointments.

The eight also boycotted an annual July 15 lunch and assembly in honour of the new batch of students as a mark of protest, another first for the college, faculty sources said.

In the morning, M.S. Frank, the administrative head of the college, met the protesting department heads and told them he would not back down, administration sources said.

The faculty had been protesting against the appointment of Christians ahead of better qualified teachers in the history and math departments. Last Friday, the heads had unanimously written to Frank to register their protest, setting the stage for a tumultuous start to the new academic session.

“He (Frank) told us today that we could do what we wanted, but he would not revoke the controversial appointments. We told him we would boycott the registration, but even that did not make him budge,” a department head said.

Frank has said that as a minority institution, St. Stephen’s is within its rights to give priority to members of the Christian community in faculty.

New students in each department are traditionally registered by the head of the department. After their meeting with Frank, the heads decided to boycott the registration and the lunch, sources said.

“We met the new batch, and handed out their lunch coupons. But we did not register them,” another department head said. The registration is traditionally followed by an assembly in the college auditorium addressed by the principal — it was chaired today by Frank. The assembly is followed by the lunch.

By evening, students had been registered in some of the departments by ad hoc faculty members in a break from tradition, the administration sources said. “But in at least four departments, not a single student has been registered yet,” a source said.

The department heads plan to call a meeting of the college staff council later this week to form a united front against the controversial selections, sources said.

The rumblings of discontent within the faculty surfaced in May when an ad hoc lecturer in the math department was replaced by a Christian candidate who till then held the status of a visiting faculty member.

The lecturer who was replaced was given the status of visiting faculty. Ad hoc lecturers enjoy better service conditions than visiting faculty, according to the department heads .