File photo of St Stephen's college
A student of Delhi's prestigious St Stephen's college has gone to court after being suspended for launching an online magazine, a controversial move that has raised a freedom of speech debate.
Devansh Mehta, the editor and co-founder of 'St Stephen's Weekly' e-zine, has been suspended till April 23 for "breach of discipline."
His petition in the Delhi High Court accuses principal Valson Thampu of putting "fetters on the much celebrated fundamental right to free expression."
A notice by the principal bars him from the college campus for six more days. Devansh was also stripped of a good conduct prize he was to have received from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday. In his plea, he has asked for the award to be restored.
Last month, the college had banned the e-zine started by Devansh and other Stephanians over an interview of the principal, which, he said, had not been cleared. The e-zine went live on March 7 and registered over 2,000 hits on the interview.
Devansh, a third year student of philosophy, called the ban "arbitrary, illegal, malafide and shockingly unreasonable" in his petition.
In an email last month, Mr Thampu had said: "It is unacceptable that, despite being explicitly told not to publish anything (especially my interview before I had the time to go through and clear the text) you went ahead in defiance. It denotes an awkward failure of education and that is why I cannot take it lightly."
Three other students involved in the e-zine chose to apologise to the principal.
Devansh had said that his group had checked with Mr Thampu before launching the magazine and he was "happy" with his interview.
"We mailed him a transcript but he didn't reply. So we didn't delay the publication," Devansh had said last month, adding, "There was nothing inflammatory in the interview. How can this be the best liberal arts college in the country if we don't have the right to speak our minds?"