Indian students on F-1 visa have been deported in large numbers.
AB Wire
The California-based Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU) has decided to file a defamation claim against air India for spreading “false information” about the institution, according to the Times of India.
In an e-mail interaction with the Times, the president of NPU Peter Hsieh said: “We are absolutely looking into taking legal action, which would include a defamation claim due to Air India’s outrageous conduct and the permanent and irreparable damage to NPU’s reputation”.
The NPU management had earlier sent a strongly-worded ‘cease-and-desist’ letter to Air India accusing it of “tortious conduct” and unjustifiably “barring NPU students from travelling” to the US, the report added. It also sought an immediate apology and retraction of its statement about the university being ‘blacklisted’ by the State Department.
Quoting admission figures of the last few years, NPU informed that while the Fall 2012 class was composed of about 30% students from India, the Fall 2015 class has roughly 95% students from India.
NPU and Silicon Valley University are currently caught in a controversy with several Indian students admitted by them being “discouraged” from flying to the US or being deported from their port of entry – which include Abu Dhabi, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, said the report.
In an email to Times, Simon Au, associate academic dean of SVU, said, “The Indian newspapers and news channels have also pointed at Air India for spreading rumors of universities “blacklisted” by the US government. SVU has not decided yet on whether it will file a defamation suit. We are in consultation with our attorneys.”
The university maintained that it was “expecting new students (from India) this week for orientation and registration of classes before the Spring Trimester starts on January 11 and that it would “accommodate late arrivals and help them register for classes”.