Kalady University suspension: High Court to decide whether students can write semester exams

NEW DELHI: The Kerala High Court's single bench will decide whether the 10 suspended students of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit at Kalady can appear for their semester examinations. The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to intervene in their plea seeking permission to write the exams. Instead, it directed the High Court single bench to hear the case at the earliest and take a decision.

The case is scheduled to be considered on November 17. If the High Court gives a favourable verdict, including on the suspension, the university will conduct a special examination for the students.

The 10 students were suspended on August 13 over allegations that they held a symbolic funeral for Vice-Chancellor Ciza Thomas and engaged in acts of violence on the campus. The university informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that the students' petition would come up before the single bench on November 17. Following this, a bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe issued the direction.

The students are pursuing MSW, MFA, MA and four-year undergraduate courses. The semester examinations began on Wednesday. The university assured the Supreme Court that it would conduct a special examination if the High Court ruled in favour of the students. Advocate P S Sudheer, appearing for the university, said the assurance was given keeping the students' future in mind.

The single bench had earlier allowed the students to appear for the examinations through an interim order. However, a Division Bench later cancelled that order. The students had approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the Division Bench's decision. A total of 16 students were suspended on September 1 in connection with the protest held on the campus on August 13. Six of them are PhD research scholars. The High Court will also decide on the suspension of these six students.

Discipline is mandatory

When the university informed the Supreme Court that the students were not allowed to write the examinations due to a shortage of minimum attendance, the court reminded it that universities have their own disciplinary mechanisms, which must be followed. The students' lawyers, P V Dinesh and K R Subhash Chandran, argued that the students had been under suspension for 64 days and that the university was unnecessarily delaying the inquiry.

They said the symbolic funeral of the non-functional lights and microphones was held to draw attention to the lack of basic facilities on the campus. The lawyers alleged that the university took action against the students because it was upset by the protest.