New Delhi, Dec. 6: The Supreme Court will decide whether sitting on silent “satyagraha” outside the college principal’s office is an act of indiscipline.

Indulekha Joseph, a student of St George’s college in Kerala’s Kottayam district, was first suspended and later dismissed for her “satyagraha” on the verandah of the office building far away from the classrooms.

The student of a three-year degree course in English held a placard that said, “Stop Harassment, Celebrate College Day”, and read a book silently on February 13, 2007, the last day of classes of her first year.

She was protesting against the principal’s decision not to hold College Day and also what she described as “constant harassment” by the principal, who allegedly had a long-standing enmity with her father, a lecturer in the same college.

The principal, a priest, allegedly did not get along with her father because he had written a book criticising the Syrian Catholic Church.

Indulekha said the principal had constantly sidelined her from the functions of the college union, though she was the elected vice-chairperson, and had called off the College Day functions over her involvement. The very day she held the satyagraha, an inquiry was ordered into her “grave indisciplinary behaviour” and she was suspended.

Indulekha had caused tension, tarnished the name of the college and obstructed its smooth functioning, the inquiry committee said. She had also distributed leaflets among students.

An appeal to a three-member Board for Adjudication of Students’ Grievances did not find merit in her claim and dismissed her from college.

It concluded that there had been “deliberate and unjustifiable effort on the student’s part to malign the reputation of the college and that she had developed strong prejudice against the principal and the institution”. She “has indulged in grave indiscipline, setting a bad example to the student community”, it said.

She was dismissed under the Mahatma Gandhi University’s rules, which prohibit political activity on campus.

The student went to Kerala High Court, which also said she was guilty of misconduct.