Delhi HC calls for final inquiry report against four JNU students

Group disrupted council meeting on admissions criteria for MPhil and PhD courses last year

The Delhi High Court on Thursday called for the final inquiry report pertaining to a December last year incident in JNU where some students allegedly "barged" into an academic council meeting on the admission criteria for MPhil and PhD courses.

The court called for the varsity Chief Procter's final report on a plea by four Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students, who were allegedly part of the group that disrupted the meeting, challenging the punishment and the fine of Rs 10,000 imposed on each of them.

Justice Indermeet Kaur told the students to pay the fine, without prejudice to their rights and contentions, and to proceed with registration for the next semester.

All the four students, Mulayam Singh, Shakeel Anjum, Dileep Kumar and Prashant Kumar, by the Chief Procter's order of July 13, were not allowed to register for the next semester apart from stopping of scholarships and library facilities and transfer of their hostels.

The students, represented by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, have challenged the order on the grounds that they do not have the means to pay the fine as they belong to poor families.

In their plea filed through advocate Gunjan Singh, they have also claimed that the order disallowing registration was "unprecedented and contrary to the practice" as students, who did not pay the fine imposed on them, have always in the past been allowed to register, subject to payment on leaving the Institute.

All the four students, who are in the third and fourth year of their respective PhD programmes, have contended that they were not provided with the documents and material based on which the final report was arrived at on June 19.

The report had charged them with forcible entry into the meeting and raising slogans, thereby disrupting the proceedings, the plea said.

It also said that their appeal against the report was dismissed by the Vice Chancellor on July 5, subsequent to which the Chief Procter passed the order of July 13.

According to the JNU report, a group of students was protesting outside the room where the Council meeting was underway.

They allegedly "broke open the latch of the meeting room door" and came inside and "shouted at" the Vice Chancellor, it had said in its preliminary report of December last year.

The varsity had said that the students belonged to Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA), Democratic Students' Union (DSU), Students' Front for Swaraj (SFS) and United OBC Forum.

It had said that the protesting students were demanding that the Academic Council reconsider its decision to "adopt" a UGC gazette notification, dated May 2016, whereby interviews became the sole criterion of admissions to MPhil and PhD courses.