Thiruvananthapuram: The management of Newman College on Friday filed a counter affidavit in the University Appellate Tribunal here against lecturer TJ Joseph plea
for staying his dismissal in the wake of the question paper row, which led to a brutal attack on allegedly by activists of Popular Front of India.
When Joseph's petition came up for hearing, the management of the catholic-church run college justified its decision holding that it was taken on the basis of evidences they
gathered against the teacher.
The Tribunal posted the case to November 27 for further hearing.
Joseph had approached the tribunal arguing the management's action maintaining that it amounted to denial of natural justice as action against him was taken without hearing side.
He also denied the charge that he had set the question paper with malafide intention to hurt the sentiments of a particular community.
Joseph, who was teaching Malayalam literature in the college located in Thodupuzha in Idukki district, was first suspended from service after a question paper set by him for an internal examination sparked off strong protests from Muslim outfits who alleged it contained derogatory references to Prophet Muhammad.
The case took a shocking turn in July last as a group of suspected PFI activists sprang a Taliban-type attack on him and chopped off his right hand.
Though the attack earned sympathy for Joseph from political and cultural quarters, his case took another twist with the college authorities sacking him before he fully recovered from the brutal attack on the ground that the question paper set him created communal ill will and it ran against the tradition and principles upheld by the college.
Even as the Syndicate of the Kottayam-based Mahatma Gandhi University, to which the college was affiliated, directed the management to re-instate Joseph, the management refused to budge from their stand.
PTI
First Published: Friday, October 29, 2010, 14:52