Procedure adopted by the university a sham, says HC, sets aside expulsion of South Asian University student
Malavika Prasad | 19 January 2024 | The Indian Express
While quashing two 2023 orders of South Asian University (SAU) expelling a Masters student over alleged acts of indiscipline, the Delhi High Court Thursday said the procedure adopted by the varsity to consider the student’s case was a “sham with a pre-determined intent to expel the student”.
Noting that the petitioner was merely informed of the allegations made against her, the court said the manner in which the entire exercise was conducted “cannot even be elevated to the status of lip service to the principles of natural justice” as it ordered that the expulsion be set aside.
A single-judge bench of Justice C Hari Shankar, in its 58-page judgement, perused through the reply of SAU to the plea of the student — Apoorva Y K — and said that it admitted, “perhaps unwittingly”, that the High Powered Committee (HPC) constituted to consider the student’s case heard her on January 13, 2023 in the “absence of the complainants as well as the witnesses who deposed in favour of the complaints”.