Muzaffarpur, May 3: The disciplinary committee of the Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology (MIT), headed by principal Dhruv Prasad, has decided to take action against students who were accused of eve-teasing and fighting with each other on the campus in April this year.

After an in depth probe, a committee, headed by faculty member A.K. Mishra, fixed accountability of the erring students and decided to summon their parents before taking any action. The institute authorities issued postcard notices to the parents and asked them to come to MIT on April 15. However, none of the parents appeared for the disciplinary meeting.

Sources said the students may have sabotaged the communication between the institute authorities and the parents and confiscated the postcards, addressed to the guardians from post offices.

“The fact that none of the parents and guardians turned up is a matter of concern,” said a member of the disciplinary committee, on condition of anonymity.

Prasad, who is also the chairman of the disciplinary committee, told The Telegraph: “Twelve students — five of the 2007-batch and seven of the 2008-batch have been found guilty of creating lawlessness on campus and instigating caste hatred and animosity among the students.

“The committee has instructed them to cough up Rs 15,000 as penalty. The college will also mark their degrees with two black dots that will prevent them from getting government jobs,” said the principal.

He added that the students would be allowed to take their examinations only after they pay the penalty.

Talking to The Telegraph, Prasad said he has taken strong exception to the frequent clashes between two groups of students, which got into a fight on April 6 over the issue of offering chocolates to a girl student on the campus.

“Students had boycotted classes from April 7,” said a senior teacher of the mechanical engineering department on condition of anonymity.

Considering the tense atmosphere on the campus, the institute had postponed the final examination of the 2010 batch, which was scheduled to start from April 15. Moreover, MIT has also deferred the second periodic term examination of the 2009 batch that was to start from April 12.

Students of MIT are reacting cautiously on the action taken by the institute. While some were stunned to see the drastic action initiated against the erring students, some backed the disciplinary panel’s decision.

Kumar Abhishek, a student of civil engineering of 2009 batch told The Telegraph: “It (the punishment) was inevitable because some of the students had crossed the limitation of discipline.”

Prabhat Ranjan, a student of 2007 batch whose name figures in the list of black dots, expressed disappointment over the college order.

“It’s an extremely harsh decision. Panel members should have thought twice before awarding black dots that will deprive the students of lucrative jobs,” he said.