Revocation of Expulsion Order

People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Maharashtra welcomes the decision of the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya (MGAHV) to revoke its expulsion order of six students from the university. The issuance of the expulsion order was not just undemocratic, but illegal too. It also bodes ill for academic freedom and the right to dissent.

The six students were expelled on 9 October 2019, for organising a programme for students to write letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on issues ranging from the sedition case against 49 intellectuals, the lynching of Dalits and Muslims, the proposed privatisation of the railways and public sector units like Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, etc. In what is clearly an absurd, excessive and patently illegal act, the central university said that the charges for the expulsion notices which were issued on 10 October were that the students were violating the “model code of conduct” in operation throughout Maharashtra in the light of the forthcoming assembly elections. An additional reason cited was that the act of the students, in attempting to write letters to the Prime Minister, was ‘‘interference in the judicial process.” The expelled students were Chandan Saroj, Neeraj Kumar, Rajesh Yadav Sarthi, Rajnish Ambedkar, Pankaj Wela and Vaibhav Pimpalkar. The students belong to Dalit and Other Backward Classes categories.