Move to evict OSA from Maharaja’s College is abuse of power, says Leelavathy

Former faculty member criticizes college authorities for evicting Old Students' Association, calling it an abuse of power and unfair treatment.

Literary critic and former faculty member at Maharaja’s College M. Leelavathy has dubbed the decision of the college authorities to evict the Old Students’ Association (OSA) and take back its office room as “abuse of power”.

Ms. Leelavathy said the college was not merely a building or a complex of classrooms. Faculty members who taught at the college and students who studied there are the soul of the college.

The college authorities have been unfair to an organisation that had all along attempted to link former students across the world with the college, Ms. Leelavathy said while expressing her strong protest.

The college had taken back the office room of OSA citing dearth of classrooms in the wake of the launch of the four-year undergraduate programme. The college claimed that the room was now being used as a classroom for MSc Mathematics.

Former High Court judge, college alumni, and former president of OSA K. Sukumaran has also written to the college Principal decrying the move. “Prima facie, the acts of the college authorities appear to constitute offences punishable under the Indian Penal Code [now Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita],” he wrote.

He also alleged that the sudden and speedy formation of a new alumni association despite OSA being active since the initial days of the college reeked of “mala fide intention, organised with a sly and sinister motive to deprive the right and privileges lawfully enjoyed by the OSA,” Mr. Sukumaran said.