Kerala High Court condemns and quashes sexist hostel rules imposed by a college

The Kerala High Court in its recent judgment highlighted that college administrative authorities cannot impose moralistic and discriminatory rules on students, explicitly when the rules have no relation with the object to maintain discipline and decorum within the campus, for instance, the college had prohibited female students for being part of political movements or going out for late night movies.

A 20 years old student challenged these rules seeking support from the UGC (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2015.The petition states that concern for the safety of women students should not be the reason to impose discriminatory rules on women as compared to male students in hostels. Campus safety policies for women employees and students should not result in over monitoring or policing which may affect their freedom of movement.

The Court held that the college does not have the right to intervene with the choices of female students. Further, the judgment stated it is the fundamental right of every citizen to have its independent views on politics. Therefore, this instruction has to be struck down as a violation of fundamental rights.

“The moral paternalism is something to be frowned upon. A girl is having equal freedom similar to a boy” said the court.

In addition, the court held that it is for the students to decide when to go for a movie and the college may fix timings to return in the evening, therefore, the moral choice of college cannot be imposed and this clause has to be struck down. The court struck down these rules with a conclusion that they were not affecting the college discipline in any which way since they were imposed only on female students.

Further, the court observed that any rule which does not affect the discipline of the college shall be quashed, though the college administration would be well within its rights to set rules for maintaining the decorum of the college.

Therefore, a certain set of rules which may require special permission to remain in the hostel during the working hoursand disciplinary action for mischievous conduct by students were upheld by the Court.