Students have no right to protest against teachers: SC

A bench headed by Justice Markandeya Katju said: “Students do not have a right to agitate against the teachers by placing placards and posters.’’
While dismissing the petition of Indulekha Joseph, a student from St George’s College in Kerala’s Kottayam district, the apex court showed some leniency by directing the college authorities to issue her transfer certificate without passing any remarks that would adversely affect her further studies.
“What kind of a student are you? You are raising slogans, distributing pamphlets, holding press conferences, displaying placards. What do you think you are doing, a satyagraha,” remarked Justice Katju.
“Do you think you are Mahatama Gandhi,” Justice Katju asked. “You are behaving like a neta (leader), not like a student. This type of netagiri is indiscipline.”
Indulekha had challenged the ruling of Kerala High Court that upheld the decision of the college and its disciplinary committee to expel her from the college for showing indiscipline by sitting on silent “satyagraha” outside the college principal’s office on February 13, 2007, the last day of her first year classes.
She was dismissed under Mahatma Gandhi University’s rules which prohibit political activity on campus. By fixing placards and poster saying “Stop Harassment, Celebrate College Day,” she started reading a book the whole day ignoring the warning of the college authorities. She was protesting against the principal’s decision not to hold College Day and also what she described as “constant harassment” by the principal, who allegedly had a long-standing enmity with her father, a lecturer in the same college.
The principal, a priest, allegedly did not get along with her father because he had written a book criticising the Syrian Catholic Church.
Indulekha, who was the vice-chairperson of the college union, alleged that the principal had constantly sidelined her from the college function organised by her and her team of students. The very day she held the satyagraha, an inquiry was ordered into her “grave indisciplinary behaviour” and she was suspended. The inquiry committee said by staging satyagraha, she caused tension in the college and tarnished the name of college. An appeal to a three-member Board for Adjudication of Students’ Grievances did not find merit in her claim and she was dismissed her from the college. It concluded that there had been “deliberate and unjustifiable effort on the student’s part to malign the reputation of the college and that she had developed strong prejudice against the principal and the institution.” She “has indulged in grave indiscipline, setting a bad example to student community,” it said.