The dismissal of a 19-year-old woman student from Jammu and Kashmir was cancelled by a city university, about two weeks after she was rusticated following allegations that she posted “anti-national” comments on social media after the February 14 Pulwama attack that claimed lives of 40 CRPF men.

A seven-member inquiry committee of the SGT University did not find the posts “anti-national” and the university’s PRO said she was initially dismissed as “students were protesting inside the campus” and they “had to take some decision”.

On Thursday, university’s spokesperson Rajneesh Yadav said the dismissal was revoked earlier this week and Zaffar, who had gone back to Kashmir, was yet to join the college. “Initial decision was taken by a five-member committee after students approached us with screenshots of the social media posts. Later, the new committee decided to revoke the decision earlier this week,” Yadav said.

The PRO did not specify what was the new information on the basis of which the rustication order was quashed.

When asked whether the initial decision to dismiss the student was taken to pacify the protestors, the PRO said, “When around 500 students are protesting, then some decision has to be taken.”

On February 19, Sadaf Zaffar, a second-year student in the varsity’s undergraduate programme, was dismissed following a 20-minute-long meeting after around 500 students started protesting in college demanding her dismissal over anti-national comments, the PRO had said.

The protests died down within minutes of the student being dismissed.

During the protest, a university poster with Zaffar’s face on it was removed by a staffer and it was burnt by the protesting group, as teachers and police watched, show multiple videos of the incident HT accessed.

The police had earlier dismissed the social media post as a small issue and said that there was no material to file a suo-motto sedition case under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code.

First Published: Mar 08, 2019 01:11 IST