India, March 20 -- For decades, the courts in India have worried that "campus politics" encourage "tension and lawlessness" at the cost of "academic atmosphere". Kerala, which has experienced hundreds of instances of campus violence linked to political parties, has been at the forefront of this discussion. Now, in response to a public interest litigation, the Kerala High Court has called on educational institutions to formulate rules that will ensure a "congenial atmosphere" and keep them "free from political influence".

This directive may set up a clash between two different ways of managing the influence of political parties on campuses. On one side, the Kerala High Court has upheld the right of educational institutions to promulgate a...