4 min readChennaiSep 6, 2019 08:23 PM IST
First published on: Sep 6, 2019 at 08:23 PM IST
According to the University rules and regulations, students from other colleges are only required to submit eligibility certificate said, Kiruba Mohan.
A student activist of Madras University, who had enrolled for a master’s programme in the Department of Philosophy, has been expelled from the course on the charge that he had not provided an eligibility certificate.
A group of students protested on Thursday at the Madras University against the revocation of admission offered to Kiruba Mohan, the student activist.
Kiruba Mohan, a native of Ilampilai town panchayat near Salem district of Tamil Nadu is the first graduate from his family. He had completed his post-graduation in MA (Journalism and Mass Communication) in 2018 from the University of Madras and had applied for a master’s degree in Buddhism course at the same university. He is the former secretary of Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle (APSC), a student group. According to Kiruba, his admission was rejected on August 29 on the basis that he didn’t align with the University guidelines and had not submitted the eligibility certificate from his previous head of the department.
Speaking to indianexpress.com, Kiruba Mohan said by initiating actions like these the University is trying to curb the democratic right of the students. “I had been attending class since July 31, everything was fine and suddenly on August 21, my head of the department called me and said that he is under pressure to declare me ineligible for the course. I was shocked, I had been attending classes regularly, I have cleared my PG, and I didn’t find any real reason. The HoD then told me that since I had been part of a student group and had organised few protests in the University, the higher authorities wanted to remove me from the course.
On August 29, just one month after I got enrolled in the Buddhism course they gave me a letter saying that my admission has been canceled since I didn’t submit my eligibility certificate,” he said.
However, Kiruba claimed that according to the University rules and regulations, students from other colleges are only required to submit eligibility certificate. “When I did my post-graduation here, I had provided my eligibility certificate. At the time of my admission, my HoD asked me to submit my PG provisional certificate alone since I graduated from the same university. Also, two students enrolled after me in this master’s programme and they haven’t submitted their eligibility certificate till now. In the letter, they had mentioned I violated the code of conduct; I don’t know what I violated,” he added.
Kiruba further added that the protests he carried out during his tenure as the secretary of Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle were the reason behind this action by the University. He added that students have the democratic right to protest for any social cause. “We protested when BJP leader L Ganesan and Tarun Vijay (former MP) came to our college. We also staged protest against various social issues, including the death of JNU student Muthukrishnan, New Education Policy, etc.”
Kiruba said he requested the University to give him some time for producing the eligibility certificate, but he was denied by the management.
Indianexpress.com reached out to University officials and the Head of Department, but they were unavailable for comment.
According to the University rules and regulations, students from other colleges are only required to submit eligibility certificate said, Kiruba Mohan.
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