Is dancing with women a crime? That is the question ricocheting off the walls of Patna University after two teachers were suspended because a video surfaced of them shaking a leg with female students during a farewell event for the students.

Vice-chancellor (VC) Y.C. Simhadri suspended professor Matuk Nath Choudhary and senior assistant professor Dilip Ram - both of the postgraduate Hindi department - on Tuesday, on the basis of video footage shot during a farewell party for postgraduate students on October 6 last year.

According to university sources, if any teacher has to be suspended because of some non-academic practices or insubordination, a fact-finding committee is set up first, followed by a showcause notice to the teacher concerned. The teacher is suspended only after the university syndicate and Raj Bhavan - The governor is the de facto chancellor of all state universities - give their nod.

The two Hindi teachers claimed the university ignored the mandatory procedure and suspended them ad hoc without initiating any departmental proceedings or serving any showcause notice.

"The suspension is totally unethical and is a biased act of the VC," Matuk Nath told The Telegraph. "I was not informed what crime I had committed in dancing with girls who requested me to join a farewell party."

Dilip too claimed that the suspension was unethical and unconstitutional.

"The VC suspended me as he had asked me to sign on a paper that was related to financial issue," he said. "I refused to sign the paper as being the in-charge head of department I don't have powers to sign off on matters dealing with finance. Hence, he suspended me on a flimsy ground."

Matuk Nath is on leave due to medical reasons and the vice-chancellor had asked Dilip to clear financial papers concerned with reinstating the fellowship money of a research scholar and salary of an employee of the Hindi department, said sources in the department.

Matuk Nath had stopped the fellowship money of the research scholar and the employee's salary for alleged insubordination, the sources added.

When The Telegraph contacted vice-chancellor Simhadri, he refused to comment and said he was busy.

G.K. Pillai, the newly appointed in-charge registrar of the university, said: "The suspension was made after some students, who had captured the video of teachers performing vulgar dance at a farewell party, complained against the teachers."

He also claimed that the students had submitted the video to Raj Bhavan, and that the suspension orders were issued based on the Raj Bhavan's direction.

However, most varsity academic staff and students seemed to be supporting the suspended teachers.

"Both Matuk Nath Choudhary and Dilip Ram are sincere teachers and some students had invited them to the farewell party," a first-year student of the department said on condition of anonymity.

She added that because Matuk Nath had stopped the salary of an employee and payment of a research scholar, some students had made the video with the backing of a section of the staff and the research scholar and sent it to Raj Bhavan.

"The suspension of two teachers is an attack on the cultural freedom of an individual and an act done without following necessary procedures of the Patna University Act," said former Patna College principal N.K. Choudhary.

Choudhary is no stranger to controversy. Around a decade ago, the university had suspended him for having a live-in relationship with a student. Over five-and-a-half years later, Raj Bhavan reinstated him in 2011.

This is not for the first time that suspension of a teacher at the varsity has sparked controversy in more recent times either. Last year, the varsity administration had to revoke the suspension of English department teacher Shiv Jatan Thakur.

Thakur, who the vice-chancellor had suspended on July 11 for misconduct, had approached Raj Bhavan. The chancellor's office asked the VC to reinstate Thakur.