Kasaragod: The Central University of Kerala (CUK) has reconstituted its Student Grievance Redressal Committee, removing Prof Joseph Koyipally, after the Kerala High Court questioned how he could sit in judgment in a complaint filed against him.

The new Grievance Redressal Committee, reconstituted on June 20, has six members, including a student representative, and is headed by Prof Arun Kumar K of the Department of Plant Science.

The move came in compliance with the court's interim direction to the Vice Chancellor issued on June 9, in a writ petition filed by Nayanthara Thilak, a postgraduate student (2022–2024 batch) from the Department of English and Comparative Literature.

A year ago, on July 27, 2024, Thilak wrote to the Student Grievance Redressal Committee that her internal marks were unfairly reduced by Prof Koyipally and Dr Asha S, an associate professor and Head of the Department, after she attended a prestigious academic programme at Cornell University.

But soon after she filed the complaint, the then vice-chancellor in charge, Prof Vincent Mathew, reconstituted the Redressal Committee and included Prof Koyipally in it.

Prof Koyipally is the dean of the School of Languages and Comparative Literature, and has frequently stood in as the acting Vice-Chancellor during Prof Mathew’s absence, a role that underscored his prominence within the university's hierarchy.

According to her legal team, the Grievance Redressal Committee never took up her complaint, forcing her to approach the High Court.

On June 9, 2025, High Court judge D K Singh directed the new Vice Chancellor, Professor Siddu P Algur, to "reconstitute the redressal cell in which the fifth respondent (Prof Koyipally) should not be associated at all..."  The interim order further directed the Grievance Redressal Committee to hear both Prof Koyipally and the student before submitting its report.

The court will hear the case next on July 8.

Thilak, a topper in class, alleged that her internal marks were deliberately manipulated to prevent her from securing the top rank in her class.

On March 8, during CUK's eighth convocation, the first-rank holders of 26 of the university’s 27 departments were honoured. However, the Department of English and Comparative Literature did not announce its topper. Controller of Examinations Dr Jayaprakash R confirmed that the department’s rank list had been withheld because of the court’s interim order on March 7 in Thilak’s case.

According to the writ petition, faculty members Prof Koyipally and Dr Asha, the Head of the Department, awarded Thilak 49 out of 60 internal marks in English Language and Linguistics, the lowest in her class. This came after she attended a six-week Critical Theory Summer School at Cornell University, from June 9 to July 18, 2024, for which she had secured prior written permission from the university.

Thilak, a native of Kozhikode and a three-time class topper, alleged that her low marks were a form of academic retaliation. She noted that the 49 marks she received were the same as those awarded to a student who had been on maternity leave for several months, calling it "sufficient evidence of bias".