Three students of the Government Law College here were
suspended on Tuesday after a teacher was injured during an altercation. Tension
prevailed at the college after students cutting across political affiliations
struck classes, barged into the principal’s room and laid siege to it.The
situation worsened following an altercation between a group of protesting
students and S.S. Girisankar, an assistant professor at the college. A staff
council meeting held later in the day decided to close down the college
indefinitely on the grounds that the atmosphere was not conducive for
conducting classes. The college also decided to suspend three students, two of
them from the three-year LL.B. course and one from the five-year course. The
college also faxed a letter to the Principal Secretary, Higher Education,
giving details of the incident.While the students alleged that the professor
manhandled one of them, the professor dismissed the allegation saying he was
the victim and suffered bruises. Both the parties lodged police complaints and
got admitted to a hospital for treatment. The students then laid siege to the
road in front of the college.
The volatile situation has been prevailing in the college
ever since eight students of the five-year LLB course were not allowed to take
the fourth semester exams for allegedly having low attendance. Seventy five per
cent attendance is required for writing an exam. Those with attendance between
50 per cent and 75 per cent are condoned.The college authorities said students
with less than 50 per cent attendance were detained, whereby they would not be
promoted to the next semester and hence not allowed to write exams. While
authorities claimed this was the accepted practice, the students said there was
no such mandatory practice.The students sat on a hunger strike in front of the
college from last Wednesday. Students’ organisations cutting across political
parties took up their case and struck classes on Thursday.On Friday, the
principal accepted their demand and gave a representation to the MG University
to allow the students to appear for the exam.
MG University Vice-Chancellor A.V. George, however, said a
decision on the matter was left to the discretion of the Principal. The
students then struck classes on Monday and Tuesday which led to the untoward
incidents.Afsal Hassainar, one of the detained students, alleged that there was
no transparency in marking attendance. Attendance was a weapon used against
students disliked by college authorities.“We are ready to accept the college
mechanism for marking attendance. But they should explain how students who
never attended classes were not detained and why those like us who attended the
classes were detained. We will now lose almost a year,” he said. Mr. George
said the varsity has no role in matters related to attendance, which was in the
domain of the Principal.
College Principal A.S. Saroja, however, said her right was
limited to students eligible to be condoned. She said the students had taken
their case to the court, but failed to get a favourable verdict and had been
resorting to intimidating tactics since then.Sethuraj, a KSU activist on the
campus, alleged that a student suspended for a couple of months and another who
rarely attended classes on account of party work were allowed to write exams.“The
principal can now at least spare the affected students the ordeal of having to
sit out of the college for six months. She can allow notional registration,
whereby they can attend the next semester but will have to write the fourth
semester exams as supplementary,” he said.Ms. Saroja, however, said she could
not contradict her stand, including the affidavit filed in court. This leaves
the students with the sole option of joining the students getting promoted to
the fourth semester in June.Mr. Girisankar said as the class teacher of the
fourth semester students he had the attendance records of all students with
him.“Even students with 40 per cent attendance have been condoned. We even
extended the classes to let the students achieve 40 per cent attendance but
they didn’t use it,” he said.
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