Reach consensus with IIT-Gandhinagar, HC urges student who challenged suspension over indiscipline
THE GUJARAT High Court on Wednesday advised the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IIT-Gn) and a student, who has challenged the institute’s order suspending her from one semester for alleged indiscipline to “arrive at a consensus” in the matter. Justice Nirzar Desai of the Gujarat High Court was hearing a petition filed by the student, who is pursuing a Masters programme, in which she claimed that her suspension from her final semester had arisen out of alleged previous incidents of “indiscipline” for which the institute had already initiated action against her.On Wednesday, as the advocate representing IIT-Gn requested for time to take instructions from the director of the institution who is the “author of the impugned order” suspending the student, the HC orally advised the institute to “show sympathy” towards the student in her “early 20s”. The court orally remarked, “Sometimes a student, for whatever reason, may have crossed the line. But you being an institution, you know… at the age… a person in his early 20s or he’s a teenager or he or she may not be knowing the consequences of bad behavior…She may have done something wrong, but it is not so grave that she would require suspension…. You have asked her to leave the hostel. She is not living in the hostel. She has done community service… Your entire (impugned) order is based on her past conduct…” The student’s counsel also submitted a draft of an apology to be tendered to the institute by the student to end the stalemate and be able to defend her thesis on May 5, before a panel of professors – which would mark the end of her academic session and course at the institute, the counsel informed the court. The court orally said, “This is always between institution and student. The policy will never come in the way of any student if the action on the part of the student is bona fide and if the apology is genuine and from the heart. But at the same time, a person must not feel that mere formality…” Suggesting that both the sides should arrive at a consensus, the court orally said, “It is always better for both the sides to close this issue by arriving at a consensus without giving orders…
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