HC grants relief to law student rusticated for smoking cannabis on campus

In a relief to a first-year law student from a Vile Parle college who was rusticated in March for allegedly smoking cannabis in college campus, the Bombay high court

In a relief to a first-year law student from a Vile Parle college who was rusticated in March for allegedly smoking cannabis in college campus, the Bombay high court (HC) has allowed her to appear for internal exams till regular court resumes post the Covid-19 lockdown. The court also stayed her rustication on the grounds that the college could not have based its decision to rusticate her on the basis of Instagram posts as the veracity of the posts were not confirmed.

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While hearing the student’s petition, the bench of justice Gautam Patel who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, was informed by advocate Mohit Bhardwaj that the college had taken an arbitrary and disproportionate action in the form of rustication on the basis of suspicion without giving her an opportunity to represent herself. Bhardwaj further submitted that the petitioner and another student were rusticated by the college last month and another 18 students were suspended temporarily.

The action by the college, Bhardwaj argued, was unwarranted as it neither provided her any reason nor gave her an opportunity to defend herself.

However, advocate Manorama Mohanty, representing the college -- Kirit P Mehta School of Law run by Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), argued that even though the exact reason has not been specified in the response to the students’ plea, the college had relied upon some posts on a social media site which showed the students consuming prohibited material inside the campus. Mohanty submitted that the college had confronted the students with the same before the action was initiated against them, however, she was unable to place the photographs and documents before the court due to the lockdown.

After hearing submissions, justice Patel observed that since the material pertaining to social media posts and other documents could not be accessed by the college at the moment, it cannot pass an order on merits of the plea and in the meantime, the petitioner should be granted ad-interim relief. He added that the relief would be active until further hearing takes place. The court also allowed a request made by student to appear for internal exams until further orders. Patel, however, warned that if the action by the college was justified the student would have to face the consequence.