For decades, the courts in India have worried that “campus politics” encourage “tension and lawlessness” at the cost of “academic atmosphere”. Kerala, which has experienced hundreds of instances of campus violence linked to political parties, has been at the forefront of this discussion. Now, in response to a public interest litigation, the Kerala High Court has called on educational institutions to formulate rules that will ensure a “congenial atmosphere” and keep them “free from political influence”.

This directive may set up a clash between two different ways of managing the influence of political parties on campuses. On one side, the Kerala High Court has upheld the right of educational institutions to promulgate a “code of conduct” that prohibits party “political activities” and to require student representation to be channeled through prescribed forums. On the other, in Council of Principals (2006), the Supreme Court sought, more modestly, only to “disassociate student elections from political parties” by ordering that “during the period of the elections no person, who is not a student on the rolls of the college or university, shall be permitted to take part in the election process in any capacity.”

What should the way forward be: Should educational institutions be permitted to “strictly ban” party-political activities or should they be required to follow rules that only “minimise” their influence during election time? The Lyngdoh Committee, whose report formed the basis of Council of Principals (2006), agonised over the question of undue “political influence” on campuses in view of the “indiscretions that political parties are known for”. It nonetheless chose not to proscribe political parties from student elections for two reasons. One worry was that “placing restrictions on........

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