GOPI P S Vs. SUB INSPECTOR OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Student indiscipline has reared its ugly head again. This time, in the campus of the Government Law College, Kozhikode, forcing the Principal of the College to rush to this Court seeking orders for Police protection to restore normalcy. Meanwhile, incidents of violence and destruction of public property have followed. Pursuant to the orders of this Court, the situation has been brought under control. But some questions still remain. Who should pay for the destruction of public property that has ensued Are the petitioners entitled to their costs But, before we lock horns with those questions, a brief resume of the facts is necessary.

(2.) The Government Law College, Kozhikode is a very prestigious educational institution that has maintained at all times an impressive track record of academic excellence. An institution that has been imparting legal education of the highest order to succeeding generations of law students who have passed out of its portals over the past more than three decades. The list of its distinguished alumni reads like the who's who of the legal profession. The first petitioner is the Principal of the Law College and the second petitioner is the Secretary of the Parent Teachers Association of the College. They have filed this Writ Petition complaining that, consequent to the student agitation spearheaded by the sixth respondent Students Federation of India (SFI), a situation of lawlessness, chaos and indiscipline has come to prevail in the Law College and its campus, making normal functioning of the College impossible. Consequently, the Principal had to close down the College indefinitely on 28-1-2010. In the Writ Petition, the petitioners sought for the issue of directions to the Police authorities, to provide protection for the smooth functioning of the College. Directions were also sought for recovering the loss to public property that has been caused by the agitating students.

(3.) The demand of the agitating students was to take back a student of the seventh semester LL.B. course by name Sandeep Kumar, A., who has been compulsorily issued his Transfer Certificate by the Principal and the Staff Council.