Overview
- The university syndicate recently considered a draft Students' Code of Conduct that proposes bans or limits on protests, dharnas, recruiting new members, posters and graffiti, fundraising, events with political figures and online campaigning.
- The draft would let department heads and college principals impose discipline, including suspension, and prescribes fines of Rs 5,000 for students, Rs 10,000 for political organisations and Rs 1 lakh for repeat violations.
- Unpaid fines could be treated as arrears leading to revenue recovery, possible property attachment, withholding of exam results and potential criminal proceedings under national laws, according to union members who reviewed the draft.
- Kerala University officials and Higher Education Minister Roji M. John have said the document is only a draft and will be amended after consultations, while the Kerala University Employees' Union and political leaders led by Pinarayi Vijayan have threatened protests and called the measures undemocratic.
- University sources say the backlash may force revisions that drop a blanket ban on student politics, narrow rules to target external political actors and revisit eligibility rules for student union elections, and the draft traces to a 2005 MG University model asked for by the Kerala High Court after the 2018 murder of student leader Abhimanyu M.