MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court enabled a civil engineering student from Thoothukudi continue his education after he was turned away from a college citing pendency of an FIR against him.
The facts of the case were that the petitioner, a 19-year-old student, was pursuing B.E. Civil Engineering in a private college, affiliated to Anna University, in Thoothukudi from 2017.
In September this year, when he was in his fifth semester, he was added as an accused in a double murder case.
Though he was released on bail, the college management refused to permit him to pursue his education citing the Regulations 2017 of the varsity.
Following this, the student approached the court seeking permission to continue his education and also to attend the semester exam.
Justice M Sundar, who heard the case, highlighted various judgments by the Supreme Court and other High Courts that stated that pendency of an FIR cannot be a bar for a student to get admitted in or continuing a course in which he or she had already secured admission.
He observed that the student should not be stigmatised over mere pendency of an FIR.
He directed the college administration and the varsity to permit the student to redo his fifth semester in June 2020 and also allow him to write semester examinations.