The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday, November 27, informed the Madras High Court (HC) that as many as 231 cases were booked in connection with the fights between groups of students of Chennai city colleges in the last 10 years.
The submission was made by government advocate Arul Selvam before Justice AD Jagadish Chandira when the bail petitions of the Pachaiayappa's College students, who were arrested on charges of murdering a Presidency College student due to rivalry, came up for hearing, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
As sought by the court during the previous hearings, the details of the cases involving students in clashes were submitted.
Out of the 231 cases, 198 were registered by the Greater Chennai Police and the remaining ones were booked by the Gov't Railway Police involving altercations and disturbances.
Pachaiyappa's students were involved in 58 cases while Presidency students accounted for 28 cases.
Advocate D Ravichander, representing the higher education secretary, informed the secretary has directed the principals of both these colleges to hold meetings with the students to sensitise them against fighting with each other.
R Thirumoorthy, appearing for the intervenor G Aravindhasamy, State Secretary of Students' Federation of India (SFI), stressed the need for ensuring 'restorative justice' for the students, and he said some student body has to be established in the colleges to act as a bridge between the students and the management in order to find a lasting solution to the issue.
He also pointed out that the higher education department of the state has not yet taken into consideration the notifications issued by the Union Human Resources Development Ministry following the guidelines issued by the Lyngdoh committee which was formed by an order of the Supreme Court.
After hearing the submissions, the judge impleaded the principals of the Pachaiyappa's and Presidency colleges in the case, as suggested by the counsel for the higher education secretary. He reserved the orders on the bail petitions.
