A contract lecturer of St Joseph’s Autonomous College was terminated from the institute, allegedly because of his sexual orientation.
Ahley Tallis, the sacked lecturer, has accused the college of firing him without any prior notice. He told the New Indian Express that he was summoned to the principal’s office, while he was conducting classes for second year BCom students.
“As soon as I was summoned, I went to the principal’s office. In the office, principal told me that the students were disturbed by my ‘personal opinions’,” he was quoted as saying.
The college authority however, has denied the charge, saying that the faculty member did not follow the rules of contract, read the report. "His students complained that he was not teaching what he was supposed to, ultimately leading to his termination," it said.
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Ahley who is also a gay rights activist has alleged that the Catholic institute did not approve of his sexual orientation.
A similar situation surfaced Aligarh Muslim University in 2010 when professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras was suspended and hounded out of his campus home on charges of having homosexual relations with a rikshaw puller. Less than two months after the incident, Profesor Siras was found dead under mysterious circumstances.
