New Delhi, May 27
After cracking its whip on campus ragging, the Supreme Court today warned the student community against resorting to 'netagiri' at educational institutions by holding 'satyagrahas' or launching other forms of agitation.
"No educational institution can be run if the students start distributing pamphlets and carrying placards against the principal and teachers," a vacation Bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and Deepak Verma observed while hearing a plea by a girl student from Kerala who has challenged her rustication.
"Do you think you are Mahatma Gandhi" to undertake 'satyagraha' in protest the cancellation of the college day celebrations, the Bench asked the student, Indulekha Joseph, who was represented by her lawyer.
When the counsel tendered an apology for the behaviour of his client, the Bench rejected the remorse plea, observing that it was like saying sorry after stabbing or shooting somebody."
This is gross misbehaviour" which no college could tolerate, the Judges observed, showing their inclination for upholding the verdict of the Kerala High Court which had approved her dismissal.
However, when it was pointed out that the girl was suffering from an incurable auto-immune disease, the Bench asked the St George's College in Aruvithur, Kottayam, to give a transfer certificate to the BA (English) student without any "stigma."
The girl, vice-chairperson of the college union and whose father is a senior professor in the college, had held the
'satyagraha' also to expose "irregularities" in the institution. She was suspended on February 13, 2007 and subsequently rusticated her on March 26, 2007 as she refused to call off the sit-in protest.
