St. Stephens college suspends 100 students for not attending morning assembly
Teachers and students of the college have reached out to Principal John Varghese, requesting immediate withdrawal of the suspension
New Delhi: The Delhi University’s St. Stephen’s college has allegedly suspended over 100 first-year students on the grounds of not having adequate attendance at the morning assembly, a teacher said on Tuesday. The college authorities have said the students could be debarred from semester two examinations as punishment.
The college authorities sent an email to all the concerned students on February 4 asking them to set up appointments with the college principal and requested their parents to also be present at the meeting.
Following this, the college sent a follow-up email to the students on February 17 informing them of the suspension and debarment from the semester two examinations as a penalty for failing to set up the appointment.
Soon after, students and teachers reached out to Principal John Varghese, expressing concern over the matter and requested immediate withdrawal of the suspension order. The students reached out to Varghese and college authorities on Sunday via email, stating that since parents of most of the students live outside Delhi, setting up an appointment at a short notice was not feasible.
Also Read: Atishi orders probe against 12 Delhi University colleges
“Sir, for many students, the prospect of setting an appointment was not feasible, since their parents do not live in Delhi NCR....Nonetheless, some students attempted to fix an appointment without a guardian but were rejected, and others did not receive any response to their emails or e-files regarding the appointments,” the students wrote.
Teachers too expressed concern over students missing their classes and exams because of the suspension. Associate Professor Sanjeev Grewal wrote to the principal expressing shock over the development, saying that shortage of attendance at the morning assembly cannot be grounds for debarring students from appearing in examinations.
Also Read: St Stephen’s plea on admission of minorities: HC told to hear case
“Making morning assembly attendance compulsory may indeed be violative of the fundamental rights of students under Articles 25 and 28(3) of the Constitution, and hence illegal,” Grewal wrote.
HT has reached out to the college authorities for a comment on the development.