Scores of St Stephen's students and alumni today hailed a court order staying suspension of the student editor of a banned e-zine.
"Stephen's has been known for its ethos of questioning, of dissidence and of puncturing everything which is treated as sacred and reverend. Curbing freedom of speech like this and the whole nature of this enquiry is so different from what Stephen's has been known for," said Amitabh Pande, alumnus and former secretary, government of India.
Ashish Joshi, a 1984 batch student of the college, said, "We as alumni are feeling relieved that justice has been done. Stephen's is a reputed institution and curbing students like this will definitely set wrong examples."
The Delhi High Court stayed the order of St Stephen's College Principal Valson Thampu suspending Devansh Mehta, the student editor of banned e-zine, for "violating" discipline.
Noted economist N K Singh, a former student and teacher, lamented that it was unfortunate that the college was being dragged into some controversy or other.
"I hope students and teachers will make coordinated efforts to restore the credibility and image of the college," he said.
Mehta, himself, hailed the court's move saying, "This is the fairest possible judgement in this case. Students who were willing to support me earlier but were reluctant because of the fear of facing action today openly joined the protest because of the justifying response from the court."
A section of students had yesterday written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal requesting him not to attend the college's graduation ceremony on April 18 where Mehta was supposed to receive an award.
