Bombay HC dismisses Dalit PhD scholar’s plea against suspension from TISS

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by Dalit student and PhD scholar Ramadas Prini Sivanadan against his suspension from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences for “repetitive misconduct” and alleged anti-national activities, Bar and Bench reported.

Sivanadan was seeking a revocation of the order issued by the institute on April 18, 2024, which suspended him from the School of Developmental Studies in its Mumbai campus for two years.

“We find that this is not a fit case to interfere,” The Indian Express quoted a division bench of Justices AS Chandurkar and MM Sathaye as saying. “There is no merit in the petition and the same is dismissed.”

A detailed copy of the judgement is yet to be uploaded.

After Sivanadan was suspended, the Progressive Students’ Forum had on April 19, 2024, claimed that the action was taken for participating in protests against the Bharatiya Janata Party government.

The students’ forum claimed that Sivanadan, who is also a student leader, had received a show cause notice from the registrar of the institute on March 7, 2024, objecting to his activism, specifically his participation in the Parliament March in Delhi in January that year and his post on social media encouraging students to watch the documentary Ram Ke Naam as an “anti-national act”.

Ram Ke Naam is a National Film Award-winning 1992 documentary...

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