The Madras High Court Bench here has come to the rescue of a third year Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) student who was expelled from a private college at Anna Nagar here for exposing presence of worms in a drinking water tank on the campus. Passing interim orders on a writ petition filed by N. Sree Nisha, Justice T. Raja directed Madurai Kamaraj University Registrar to make sure that she was readmitted and allowed to appear for the examinations after condoning lack of attendance since her expulsion on August 28.
Accepting the submission of the petitioner’s counsel A. Kannan and S. Muthukumar that the girl had been victimised by the college, the judge said: “This court is not able to see any justification whatsoever on the part of the fifth respondent (administrative officer of the college).”
He pointed out that the girl had fallen ill on July 6 and her doctor had advised her to check the quality of her drinking water.
Hence, she went to the college, the next day and found live worms in the drinking water tank. She immediately alerted the other students to desist from drinking that water.
“This infuriated the college authorities. As a result, the petitioner was asked to bring her parents. In response to the same, the petitioner brought her mother who videographed the water tank… on her mobile phone. On noticing this, the watchman and other staff forced the petitioner’s mother to leave the college.
“This led to the passing of the order of expulsion… Instead of accepting the complaint given by the petitioner to clean the drinking water tank which contained live worms, it is highly unfortunate on the part of the college to find with the petitioner/student,” he added.
