An order from the Delhi High Court has been asked to keep away from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus unless there is any proof of disturbance of law and order or in the case of varsity seeking its assistance adding that the university is not a place where the police is warranted.
The court was hearing the JNU administration’s petition against the blocking of its administrative block by agitating students.
“They are students, not criminals,” the court said adding that the police will only enter the campus on request of the JNU administration or after examining the appropriate evidence. Justice Vibhu Bakhru said this while disposing of the JNU administration’s plea for police protection for the varsity officials so that they can enter the administrative block at the time of protests by the students. Notably, JNU had alleged that during the regular protests carried out by the students on the campus against the varsity’s policy decisions outside the administrative block, which were accompanied by drum beats, no one could enter the building.
The varsity through their lawyers Monika Arora and Harsh Ahuja said that JNU staff and Students Union (JNUSU) leaders be asked not to protest within 200 metres of the administrative block and the academic complexes as per the academic rules and regulations. Taking note of it, the court asked the JNU students not to protest within 100 metres radius of the administrative block, which houses several offices including that of the Vice Chancellor, reported Janta Ka Reporter.
It also observed that the varsity has already earmarked a place for protest, therefore, the students should stage their ‘dharna’ at Sabarmati hostel lawns. “Why near the administration block?” the court asked the counsel for the students’ union. To this, the counsel said they won’t be visible at the site of the protest. The court said that protest was not for show off.
Additionally, the court ruled that the JNU administration, for the time being, can only install CCTV cameras in and around the administrative block, where the students stage protests, and at the campus main gate.
