Hugging row resolved, says school principal

"It is all resolved and the boy who already wrote the internal exam will be allowed to appear for the coming examinations. There is no problem whatsoever", the school Principal Sebastian T Joseph told PTI, adding, "we are for the welfare of the children".

The girl student could also continue in the school and there was no issue on that also, he said.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had held a meeting with the representatives of the of the church-run school management and the parents of the students few days ago to find a way out to settle the matter.

The meeting arrived at a general consensus to resolve the issue.

Tharoor later tweeted that "there are still some i s to be dotted & t s to be crossed but we are almost there...I applaud all involved for having approached the issue in a constructive spirit. This has to be win-win: the school must win back its reputation &the kids their academic careers," he said.

The St Thomas Central School at nearby Mukkolakkal has been in the eye of a storm after the incident which occurred on July 21 came to the media glare nearly five months later last week.

The boy had hugged the 11th standard girl student after her performance in a music competition following which the management had suspended him.