March 13, 2026 10:41 am (IST)
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St Stephen's student moves to court against principal over e-zine row
New Delhi, Apr 16 (IBNS): Raising a doubt on the freedom of speech and expression in one of the top league colleges in Delhi, a student of the prestigious St Stephen's college has gone to court after being suspended for launching an online magazine.
Editor and co-founder of 'St Stephen's Weekly' e-zine Devansh Mehta has been suspended till April 23 for "breach of discipline."
He has accused in his petition in the Delhi High Court that principal Valson Thampu has put "fetters on the much celebrated fundamental right to free expression."
A notice was sent by the principal barring Devansh from entering the college campus for six more days.
He was also stripped of a good conduct prize he was to have received from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday.
In his plea, he has asked for the award to be restored.
The college had banned the e-zine started by Devansh and other Stephanians last month over an interview of the principal, which, he said, had not been cleared.
The e-zine went live on March 7 and registered over 2,000 hits on the interview.
In an email last month, Thampu was quoted in media as saying: "It is unacceptable that, despite being explicitly told not to publish anything (especially my interview before I had the time to go through and clear the text) you went ahead in defiance. It denotes an awkward failure of education and that is why I cannot take it lightly."
While three other students involved with the issue apologised to the principal, Devansh said that his group had checked with Thampu before launching the magazine and he was reportedly "happy" with his interview.
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