Kochi, Nov 3 The Kerala High Court on Tuesday allowed the plea of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit and its Vice Chancellor, Ciza Thomas, challenging a single-judge order permitting 16 suspended SFI students to write their semester exams.
The single judge had on October 30 allowed the suspended students to write the exams, scheduled to commence from November 4, and directed the university to accept the necessary examination fees.
The October 30 order was challenged before a bench of justices Anil K Narendran and Muralee Krishna S which allowed the joint appeal moved by the university and Thomas.
The detailed judgement giving reasons is awaited.
The suspended students had begun a hunger strike on Monday outside the university.
They termed the High Court decision as “disappointing”, but said that the protest shall continue.
They also said that they will take legal measures against it.
“The university is playing with the future of the students,” one of the protestors told reporters.
The university students are under suspension for over two months for staging a mock cremation of the VC and allegedly assaulting her.
On Monday, the Syndicate of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, also known as the Kalady University, had decided that the suspension of 12 out of the 16 students can be revoked if they apologised in writing to the VC.
The Syndicate members said that the suspension period of the remaining four students would be increased by another two months as they had entered the university despite being on suspension.
In response to the Syndicate decision, the Students Federation of India (SFI) said there will be no apology from their side.
Earlier in the day, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that it was RSS leaders, including V D Savarkar, who had allegedly apologised to the British and promised not to take part in the Indian freedom struggle to escape punishment.
“That kind of stand will not be taken by the SFI in Keralam. There will be strong protests against any anti-student decision,” he said.
(PTI News)
