Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), an international network of survivors of clergy and institutional abuse, has petitioned the Governor of Tamil Nadu over a letter written by the Principal of Loyola College (Autonomous), Chennai, which twice drew a private individual’s mother into official correspondence about an academic programme.
The representation, dated 10 August 2026 and addressed to His Excellency Thiru Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, concerns a reply sent by the Principal, Rev. Dr A. Louis Arockiaraj, SJ, to the Registrar of the University of Madras on 11 August 2025, on the subject of the College’s Diploma in Film Making.
That reply told the Registrar that students on the nine-month AI filmmaking programme “are permitted to undergo a training at Don Bosco International Media Academy (DBIMA), France, during the last month,” and that the first batch had completed the course.
Six months later the position changed. Answering a University letter of 9 January 2026 — after reminders on 13 January, 23 January, 3 February and 11 February — the College filed a table of seven programmes on 12 February. Against a column headed “Whether Programme is Collaborated,” every entry, including Film Making, reads NO. The nine-month AI film-making diploma described in August does not appear in the table at all.
It is the August letter’s treatment of those who raised the question that ECA has taken to Raj Bhavan. The letter dismisses the complainant, Mr A.S. Santhosh, General Secretary of the Legal Rights Protection Forum, Hyderabad, as “a busy body” and “a name lender,” describes Mr Joseph D. Kennedy as “the disgruntled RTI applicant,” and states that the College “reserves its right to proceed against these individuals who are throwing slur at it.” Twice — on two separate pages, on both occasions in parentheses — it inserts a remark about Mr Kennedy’s mother and her former employment at the College.
The family member drawn into those parentheses was not a complainant, was not a party, and was not mentioned in any of the University’s queries.
“Repeated twice, in brackets, in a letter about an academic programme, the remark cannot be explained as relevant background or as an oversight,” ECA wrote. “It was placed there to diminish a man by reaching past him to his mother — and it now sits on the records of a State university and in the files of four offices of the Government.”
Those four offices are the Joint Secretary of the University Grants Commission, the Hon’ble Minister for Higher Education — then held by Mr Govi. Chezhian of the DMK — the Chief Secretary to Government, and the Secretary to Government, Higher Education Department. The letter was not copied to Mr Kennedy or to Mr Santhosh. Neither of the two individuals it names, and against whom it reserves the right to proceed, was served with it.
ECA characterises the episode as an instance of a pattern it says it encounters across jurisdictions. “An institution that cannot answer a complaint sets about discrediting the complainant; and where the complainant himself cannot be discredited, it reaches for his family,” the representation states.
The organisation’s co-founder, Mr Timothy Law, writing for its Board, has asked the Governor, who is ex-officio Chancellor of the State’s universities, to direct that the references be expunged from the University’s records and withdrawn in writing to every office copied, and that a written apology be tendered. ECA has also sought an audience at Raj Bhavan through its India Representative.
Disclosure: Mr Joseph D. Kennedy, referred to in this report, is ECA’s India Representative. The family member referred to in the College’s correspondence is his mother.
Subscribe to our channels on WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and YouTube to get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
