Why campuses must be kept free of party politics

Given that the Supreme Court originally implemented the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines as an interim measure, it should take cognisance of the doctrine developed by the Kerala HC and leave to the discretion of educational institutions how student unions are to operate

- Rahul Sagar

The purpose of a university is tutelary: The student is expected to learn, understand, and build upon accumulated human knowledgee through free enquiry.

(HT ARCHIVE)

For decades, the courts in India have worried that “campus politics” encourage “tension and lawlessness” at the cost of “academic atmosphere”.

Kerala, which has experienced hundreds of instances of campus violence linked to political parties, has been at the forefront of this discussion. Now, in response to a public interest litigation, the Kerala High Court has called on educational institutions to formulate rules that will ensure a “congenial atmosphere” and keep them “free from political influence”.

This directive may set up a clash between two different ways of managing the influence of political parties on campuses. On one side, the Kerala High Court has upheld the right of educational institutions to promulgate a “code of conduct” that prohibits party “political activities” and to require student representation to be channeled through prescribed forums. On the other, in Council of Principals (2006), the Supreme Court sought, more modestly, only to “disassociate student elections from political parties” by ordering that “during the period of the elections no person, who is not a student on the rolls of the college or university, shall be permitted to take part in the election process in any capacity.”