Kochi, Jan 30 (IANS): The Kerala High Court has started to hear a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking directions to prohibit campus politics in educational institutions in the state.

The petitioner in the PIL is a former High Court employee, who served as a private secretary to a judge. Through his petition he wanted the court to issue a directive that student organizations do not have any right to carry out political activities within college premises.

The division bench which went into the petition has decided to issue the notice and posted the case for February 20.

The petitioner N. Prakash decided to approach the court following clashes that took place earlier this month between the student wings of the CPI-M and the Congress at the state owned Maharajas College, Ernakulam.

In the clash a student activist was stabbed and the petitioner pointed out that such incidents are happening frequently in the campus and hence wanted the court to ban all forms of student politics in colleges.

The petitioner also brought to the attention of the court that it had in the past asked the government to frame regulations to control student politics in the 2003 case of the Kerala Students Union v Sojan Francis, but the directive was not implemented.

The petitioner said that he himself witnessed frequent strikes by student organizations when he was a student at the Government Law College here.