April 01, 2026 06:56 pm (IST)
Follow us:
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.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Latest Headlines
Amit Shah to join Suvendu Adhikari on Bhabanipur nomination day; BJP plans mega roadshow
Wed, Apr 01 2026
Bengal SIR progress: 47 lakh of 60 lakh adjudicated cases disposed of, Supreme Court informed
Wed, Apr 01 2026