Court listens to Tehmina, 10 years too late

Justice delayed is justice denied. And who would know this better than Tehmina Khatun who has finally won a legal battle but the verdict has...

Justice delayed is justice denied. And who would know this better than Tehmina Khatun who has finally won a legal battle but the verdict has come 10 years too late.

The woman from Barasat in North 24 Parganas district had applied for admission at the Gandhi Centenary B. Ed College at Habra in the same district. That was ten years ago. Her entries in the application form must have scandalised the college’s governing body.

Tehmina Khatun (L). Express photo

For she wrote her name as Tehmina Khatun, not using the surname of her husband Sukumar Mitra. And she struck out the column where she had to mention her religion.

Out of five of the governing body members, three were CPI(M) supporters and the remaining two were RSS men. But they were unanimous in allowing Tehmina admission only with a rider. ‘‘Write your name as Tehmina Mitra and mention religion as Hinduism,’’ they insisted.

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Ten years on, a Calcutta High Court verdict has brought her relief. The court ordered the college to admit her in this session. Tehmina’s 10-year legal battle saw her run to the sessions court at Barasat and then to the high court.

Though the earlier verdicts were in her favour, the college refused her admission on some pretext or the other.

‘‘I have won the battle but this year I would also cross 36, the age limit for a teacher’s job,’’ Tehmina said. ‘‘In any case, it’s the triumph of reason, of logic.’’ ‘‘We will request the college authorities to allow her admission now,’’ her advocate Sabyasachi Bhattacharya said. ‘‘The lower courts earlier gave the verdict in her favour but the college did not accept. If this time too they do that, we will move higher courts,’’ he said.

The woman had always fought against adverse situations to have her way. In 1991, she married Sukumar Mitra, a social activist. ‘‘There was enormous opposition from his family but ultimately they accepted me. Now I often go to their place,’’ she said. ‘‘My husband and I were ragged, jeered at even in the courts. Those representing the college called us names, asking us which religion we followed.’’

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But she also got support from various quarters. Eminent personalities of the state, like writers Sunil Gangopadhyay, Mahasweta Devi, Navaneeta Dev Sen, actor Soumitra Chattopadhyay, filmmaker Mrinal Sen, had rallied behind her. Mahasweta Devi wrote to Higher Education Minister Satya Sadhan Chakrabarthy to intervene in the matter.

Meanwhile, the state CPI(M) has refused to comment. ‘‘I have read this in the newspapers but I don’t know whether the members of the governing body were CPI(M) supporters,’’ party leader Robin Deb said.