Justice Bibhas Pattanayak of Calcutta High Court on Tuesday issued an interim stay on the removal of the principal of Rani Birla Girls’ College.

The college governing body’s decision has been stalled for five weeks.

The court decided to hear the case in detail after the Puja vacation.

“Primarily, the petitioner has made out a strong case. So the court is staying the orders issued by the governing body of the college for five weeks,” Justice Pattanayak said.

The principal, Srabanti Bhattacharya, was represented by advocates Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and Subir Sanyal. Advocate-general Kishore Datta argued on behalf of the state. Advocate Biswarup Bhattacharya appeared for the college governing body.

Rani Birla on Shakespeare Sarani is a government-aided college affiliated to Calcutta University.

The governing body had issued a show-cause notice against the principal on July 3. She was removed from the post through another notification on August 25.

Advocate Subir Sanyal pointed out that the formation of the governing body was not in accordance with law, and that such a body could not decide to remove the principal.

“The body is incomplete as three teaching members and one non-teaching member are yet to be elected to the body,” Sanyal said.

Advocate-general Datta said: “There were charges of malpractice against the principal. She acted against innocent non-teaching employees arbitrarily.”

Advocate Bhattacharya said: “The law does not permit the principal to challenge the legality of a decision taken by the governing body.”