E-zine row: St Stephen's suspends student editor

NEW DELHI: Amidst a controversy over the banning of a student e-zine by St Stephen's Principal Valson Thampu, its editor has now been suspended from the college till April 23 on disciplinary grounds.

" Devansh Mehta has been found guilty of breaching the discipline of the college by a one-man inquiry commission, the report of which has been posted on the college website.

"He is suspended with immediate effect till April 23, 2015," Thampu said in the suspension order issued today.

"During... his suspension, the campus of the college in its entirety shall be out of bounds for him," he added.

Mehta had along with three other students started an e-zine, 'St Stephen's Weekly' which went live on March 7 and registered over 2,000 hits on an interview of Thampu, following which the principal ordered a ban on the publication for not taking his clearance on the content.

The move had invited criticism from reputed college alumni, including former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi and former Delhi Lokayukta, Justice (retd) Manmohan Sarin, who had requested Thampu to reconsider the decision that was termed 'extreme' and 'disproportionate'.

Thampu had appointed a one-man disciplinary committee to look into the matter and, in its report submitted last week, it had defended the principal's action after finding the students guilty of violating the college's disciplinary norms.

The three other students, however, chose to apologise to Thampu and were against Mehta's decision to report the matter to media.

Mehta's parents slammed the college's decision, saying they expect the authorities to deal with the matter in a graceful manner.

"We are very upset with this development. The principal is clearly victimising our son for merely speaking to the media and informing them of the ban on the e-zine. He has done nothing wrong. It behoves the principal's office to exhibit more grace in dealing with the matter," his mother Manisha Mehta said.

Repeated calls and text messages to Thampu seeking his comments went unanswered.