The Telangana High Court recently set aside the suspension of a law student for allegedly tarnishing his college's reputation by posting about a food poisoning incident that occurred on campus.
Justice B Vijaysen Reddy stayed the suspension, terming the action taken by Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Hyderabad "harsh and disproportionate".
"Prima facie, the impugned action of respondent 6 in suspending the petitioner from appearing in the term-end examinations for the current semester of the academic year 2024-25 is arbitrary and violative of principles of natural justice. It was found that the petitioner made deliberate attempts to tarnish the respondent No.6 University's reputation, as such, the impugned self-explanatory letter dated 28.4.2025 was issued to the petitioner suspending him from appearing for term end examinations."
In February this year, several students at NMIMS Hyderabad reportedly fell ill after consuming food from the campus mess at its Jadcherla campus. Videos and photos shared by students indicated that the college initially failed to move the affected students to an off-campus medical facility.
One of the students who brought this to light was the petitioner, Anand Raj, who was suspended from writing the end-term exam for defaming the college on social media. Raj received intimation of the suspension two hours before the exam.
Before the High Court, Raj's counsel argued that he had no involvement in the said incident. It was further submitted that he had already missed an examination scheduled for April 28. It was also claimed that he had been suspended without show cause notice, and sans an opportunity to be heard.
The Court observed that suspending the student and preventing him from appearing in examinations is excessively harsh and disproportionate to the alleged acts of indiscipline. It thus directed the college to permit him to appear for the remaining examinations. The matter will be heard next on May 2.
Advocate S Goutham appeared for the law student.
Advocate Gadi Praveen Kumar appeared for the respondents.
[Read order]