Faith fails to move high court

CHENNAI: Can a student skip regular classes on a particular day every week on the ground of religious belief? And, is the college guilty of violating religious freedom if it insisted that every one follow the time table? No, says the Madras high court.
“Prescription of a uniform time table for all students can never be said to affect the religious faith of any individual.Even in respect of educational institutions run by minorities protected under Article 30(1) of the Constitution, the Supreme Court has not precluded the state from imposing regulations and those institutions were directed to follow the general laws of land,” Justice K Chandru said last week.
The matter relates to a petition filed by Jane Sathya, an engineering student who is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, a Christian denomination which observes Saturday as ‘Sabbath’, a day on which no non-religious work can be done. She joined Meenakshi Sundaram Engineering College in Kodambakkam in 2006 and paid a fee of Rs 50,000. She did not attend the college on Saturdays saying she was a Seventh Day Adventist, who do not believe in working on Saturdays. It was her contention that even if she absented herself on all Saturdays of a semester, she would still have adequate attendance to write exams.
The college management, however, insisted that all students, irrespective of caste or religion, must attend classes six days a week, including Saturdays. Leave will be permitted only on valid grounds, it said.
Jane, unable to continue her ‘Sabbath’, withdrew from the college and joined a minority-run institution in Pudukottai. She moved the court seeking refund of her fee, stating that she was ‘forced’ to take transfer certificate, as the Chennai college’s attitude interfered with her religious belief and freedom. She even wrote to the chief minister’s grievance redressal cell.
Justice Chandru, however, rejected her claim and said: “Any student who joined the college is bound to attend the working schedule of the college. A college prescribing time table for the academic purpose cannot be said to be intruding into any religious faith of an individual as the individual has the freedom to join any college of his/her choice. The regulations do not offend any one’s religious faith.”
“If it (time table) was not suitable to any one, they should have left the campus in which event the college could have admitted another person before the cut-off date prescribed for admission,” he said.