The Kerala police have registered a case against P. Lekshmi Nair, Kerala Law Academy Law College principal, on the suspicion that she intentionally insulted a Dalit student in public view.
The principal has been booked under The Scheduled Castes and The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989.
The college management said the case had no factual or legal basis. However, agitating students interpreted the development as one which made Ms. Nair’s continuation as principal untenable.
Severe criticism by the State Human Rights Commission prompted the police to act on Dalit student V.G. Vivek’s complaint on Monday, though a year has elapsed since he filed it.
The delay in registering the case exposed the State police to harsh public criticism that it was biased against Dalit petitioners. It had also raised questions about a possible conflict of interest between the local law-enforcers and the private college in which some of them were enrolled as management quota students. Public attention was focussed on police negligence of Vivek’s complaint after the student agitation seeking Ms. Nair’s removal gathered momentum. Vivek’s grievance was that Ms. Nair openly berated his caste status in January last. He felt the cause for his “public humiliation” was Ms. Nair’s thinking that he was responsible for some adverse reports that appeared in the media against the college.
Media reports, repudiated by Ms. Nair, had strongly hinted at the management’s suspected prejudice against Dalit students as “evidenced by the denial of SC/ST grants.” Vivek cited three students as eyewitnesses in the case.
Conciliatory talks fail
Two rounds of conciliatory discussions the college management held with the students on Monday failed to break the deadlock.
All students’ organisations, barring the Students Federation of India, termed the talks a failure.
However, leaders of the CPI(M)-feeder organisation claimed that an understanding had been reached on most issues, except the resignation of the principal.
