KOCHI: Tightening the grip over students agitation disrupting academic activity, the Kerala HIgh Court on Tuesday held that teachers are empowered to take classes even if there is only one student in the classroom and such teaching hour is liable to be reckoned.
In the landmark judgment, Justice V Chitambaresh made it clear that students who choose to participate in a strike or ‘dharna’ may walk out of the classrooms at the risk of their attendance without disrupting the ongoing classes attended by willing students.
“Students on strike who disrupt the activity is liable to be removed by the police on complaint made by the head of the department or the principal of the college.
This is of course in addition to the entitlement of the college authorities to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the erring student who had disrupted the academic activity,” the court held.The judgment said no student has any right to obstruct other eligible students from entering the classrooms or the portals of a college under the guise of strike,agitation or dharna. “Only such a course will safeguard the right to education ofthe students who are willing to attend classes obediently and take the examinations. Higher education, though not a fundamental right, is indisputably a human right as part of one’s development,” the court observed. The court issued the order while disposing of the petitions filed by Leo Lukose, Eranhipalam, and Aditya Thejus Krishnan of Mamangalam, students of the five-year BBA LLB course.