The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea filed by Dalit PhD student Ramadas K S last year challenging his suspension by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) over “repetitive misconduct and anti-national activities”.
The court observed the institute’s action was not out of discrimination or against freedom of expression.
A bench of Justices Chandurkar and M M Sathaye passed the judgment on Ramadas’s plea seeking revocation of the order issued on April 18, 2024, which suspended him from TISS’s School of Developmental Studies for two years.
“We find that this is not a fit case to interfere. There is no merit in the petition and the same is dismissed,” the high court held.
The plea filed by Ramadas sought to set aside a report by the empowered committee of TISS, which recommended his suspension, claiming that the panel had conducted an arbitrary inquiry without giving him the opportunity of a personal hearing and did not follow due process.
In July last year, the high court had directed TISS to upload the documents of the petitioner so that his fellowship continued pending his plea
In May last year, TISS sought to dismiss the plea stating that Ramadas had filed it without exercising an alternative remedy of appeal before its Vice-Chancellor, which it said was available to him.
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However, senior advocate Mihir Desai and advocate Lara Jesani, appearing for the petitioner, denied the institute’s claim.
TISS, in its reply filed through its registrar, had claimed that “as per the 2016-2017 Handbook for PhD students, appellate authority for decisions made by the Empowered Committee lies with the Director of Institute (now vice-chancellor).”
It added that owing to “increasing issues of serious misconducts by the students, a high-level common committee consisting of officials holding senior posts within the Institute was constituted (through a March 14 resolution of Administration Committee) to deal with all issues of misconducts and disciplinary action of all the students of TISS, rather than a different committee.”
The petitioner submitted that the high-level committee’s decision was clearly outside the ambit of the institute’s policies and that there was no provision for an appeal against the suspension order.
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Ramadas also denied using any political links against the institute and stated that his suspension order was wrong as many fellow students supported him.
The TISS in its report had said that it was for law enforcement agencies to investigate whether the acts of petitioner are “anti-national”.
Justice Sathaye for the bench said the impugned record indicated that TISS had “clearly informed all students that expressing and promoting their personal views, comments and/or observations on any media platform, while identifying themselves as TISS students, is strictly prohibited.”
The HC said action of petitioner of participating in a march in Delhi in January, 2024 against alleged anti-student policies of the central government was “clearly a breach of the regulation, duly published by the Institute in June, 2023 itself.”
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The said circular prescribed strict action against student breaching institute’s policy.
“The present inquiry is obviously in keeping with the said circular,” the HC noted
“In the facts and circumstances, We do not find this case as an outcome of any discrimination or against freedom of expression. This case is about involving the name of the institution in the expression of politically motivated thoughts and protests undertaken by the petitioner, a student. If such actions are prohibited under applicable rules, then the necessary consequences of the breach are bound to follow,” the HC observed.
In light of this, the HC said, it did not find the impugned report suspending petitioner suffered from “any perversity or illegality”.
