Sad that classes being held on staircases, says High Court on JNU

he university is not a place to protest, the Delhi High Court said Monday, observing that the JNU campus has been on lockdown over the varsity’s new mandatory attendance rule. This, the court noted, has forced students to attend classes on the stairs. “It is sad that the classes are taking place on staircases and the students who want to attend their lectures are not allowed to enter the campus,” Justice Rekha Palli remarked, terming the protest “really disturbing”.

“I have a case before me in which a student wants to attend classes but is not allowed. This is disturbing — the manner in which students are being stopped from attending classes… Of 8,000 students, 5,000 are not allowed to attend…,” it added.

The court’s strong oral observations were made while hearing a plea by five professors, including the Dean of the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Kavita Singh, challenging the varsity’s decision to remove them from their posts.
The five were removed in March for allegedly opposing the mandatory attendance rule. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the professors, said that JNU had set up an inquiry panel, following which the top heads were removed for refusing to implement the attendance rule.

The petitioners have also challenged an “illegal” decision passed by the JNU Academic Council (AC) in its 144th meeting held on December 1 last year. The petitioners, being chairpersons or deans, were all AC members.
Sibal contended that mandatory attendance was never a matter on the agenda, and was neither introduced nor discussed in the 144th AC: “We wrote to them to withdraw the illegal decision… but they issued a circular threatening the cutting of fellowship…”

To this, JNU’s counsel Monika Arora said these were decisions of the UGC and that the same was “applicable and binding” on all universities. The court, however, said it is only concerned on whether there was any deliberation over the professors’ objection that mandatory attendance was never a matter on the agenda.
News Source (Indian Express)