College lecturer suspended for Facebook post predicting 300 seats for BJP, Madhya Pradesh HC grants stay

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday stayed the suspension of Ujjain college lecturer Dr Raju Musalgaonkar, who had predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would win around 300 seats in the 2019 General Elections..Sitting at the Indore Bench, Justice Vivek Rusia stayed the suspension in a plea moved by Musalgaonkar through advocate Kuldeep Pathak..The suspension order was prompted by a Facebook post put up by Musalgaonkar on April 29. The post stated, “BJP 300 ke paas, NDA 300 ke paar” (BJP near 300 and NDA more than 300)..Congress worker Bablu Khich filed a complaint against the same, alleging that since Musalgaonkar was a government servant, his comment was in violation of the Madhya Pradesh Civil Services Conduct Rules, 1965 and the Model Code of Conduct during the 2019 Elections..Taking cognisance of the complaint, the Higher Education Department recommended the initiation of disciplinary action against Musalgaonkar under the Madhya Pradesh Universities Act, 1973. This culminated in Musalgaonkar’s suspension from the Sanskrit-Ved-Jyotirvigyan Department headed by him at Vikram University. The suspension order was passed on May 7..Musalgaonkar claimed that he had no such intention and that his post was a response to a query posed by a student. He also said that he had taken down the post almost immediately..While challenging the suspension order before the High Court, Musalgaonkar submitted that he was neither a government servant nor was he entrusted with election duties..As per Musalgaonkar’s writ petition, the regulations applicable to him can be found in Statute 31 enacted by Vikram University, pursuant to the provisions of the MP Vishwavidhalaya Adhinayam, 1973. Therefore, he has contended that the MCC does not apply to him. The FB post itself is argued to be an academic one, which does not establish any party affiliation..“…the petitioner is the Head of Department of School of Studies in Sanskrit, where Astrology is taught as one of the subject and look at phase of election, the above prediction has been made without giving any favour to any political party.”.His suspension has been challenged as a mala-fide, and passed due to undue pressure from the ruling Indian National Congress regime in Madhya Pradesh..After hearing an interim application moved for hearing the matter urgently during the summer vacation, Justice Rusia stayed Musalgaonkar’s suspension yesterday..Notice returnable by three weeks has also been issued to the Registrar of Vikram University, the State’s Higher Education Department, Ujjain’s Chief Electoral Officer, and the district’s Returning Officer..Read the order:.Read the petition:.Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, Click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.