Class boycott in Calicut University as boy allowed keeping beard

Calicut: On Tuesday, students of Calicut University’s centre for physical education in Kerala’s Kozhikode boycotted classes to protest against Vice-Chancellor’s decision to allow a Muslim boy keeping beard, as per Times Of India reports.

For sporting a beard, Mohammad Hilal, a first year student of Calicut University was restricted from attending classes.

As there was no mention of any such rule in the prospectus, Hilal then filed a complaint following which university VC K Mohammed Basheer allowed him to attend classes till the final deposit of the complaint.

The decision did not go down well with around 150 students and boycotted classes by taking out a protest march to ensure uniform rules for all students.

Surendran P, Physical education department coordinator said, “Almost all physical education institutions have been following this tradition. It is also mandatory to remove beard while participating in body contact events like boxing, wrestling and so on,” he said, adding that Hilal had also agreed to follow the code during admission.