The Hindu : HC upholds college management's rights

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

HC upholds college management's rights

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI May 26. A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday upheld the rights of college managements to prohibit political activities on college campuses and forbid students from organising or attending meetings other than the official ones.

The Bench, comprising Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice K. Padmanabhan Nair, upheld the management right to ban politics on campuses while dismissing an appeal filed by Sojan Francis, SFI area committee member and second year B.A. student of the St. Thomas College, Pala, against a Single Judge's order.

The petitioner had challenged the action of the principal in disallowing him to write the examination provisionally on grounds of shortage of attendance and ignoring the directive of the Controller of Examinations, Mahatma Gandhi University, to permit him to write the examination.

The court declared that "it is open to the educational institutions to prohibit political activities within the college campuses and forbid students from organising or attending meeting other than the official ones within the college campus and such a restriction would not violate Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression) or (c) (freedom to form associations or unions) of the Constitution of India''.

Upholding the guidelines of the General Discipline framed by the St. Thomas College management banning political activities on the campus, the judges expressed the hope that the State Government would come out with appropriate regulatory measures for Government educational institutions "as was done in this case by the St. Thomas College. "Such measures would achieve the purpose sought to be achieved by the Kerala Government Servants Conduct Rules 1960 as well as Conduct Rules laid down for subordinate staff of the educational institutions run by the Government and the affiliated colleges (ban on employees indulging in political activities).

The Bench while referring to the earlier High Court verdict banning political activities on school campuses, pointed out that the court had directed the Government to issue appropriate regulatory measures for the functioning of colleges and other higher secondary schools, "but no such regulatory measures have been laid down by the State so far''.

The court observed that the guideline laid down by the college management was "not designed to prohibit any of the fundamental rights of the students guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) or 19(1)(c)''. It was not a total prohibition of any fundamental right, "but only a reasonable restriction confined to college campus and the code of conduct cannot be flouted in the name of any other freedom''.

Once students were admitted to an educational institution, they were bound by the code of conduct laid down by the educational institutions through the prospectus or college calendar and "it is implicit that they should observe the code of conduct necessary for the proper administration and management of the institution''.

The Judges pointed out that the restrictions were "designed to promote discipline in the educational institution so that the objectives of the educational institution can be achieved and wisdom of laying down those restrictions cannot be challenged after getting admitted to the educational institution''.

As the right to admission was not absolute, regulatory measures could be laid down for ensuring educational standards and maintaining excellence in education.

The Bench observed that for giving effecting to the objectives for which the educational institution was established either by minority community or by the majority community, they could lay down their own rules and regulations governing the teachers, non-teaching staff as well as students. They could also lay down their own code of conduct to uphold their constitutional rights. It was in the exercise of those rights that they had laid down a code of conduct for maintaining discipline and orderly administration.

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