New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University on Thursday withdrew the foundations that stipulated college students can face a nice of Rs 50,000 for bodily violence, abuse and holding dharna on campus, with its VC Santishree D Pandit claiming that she was not conscious that such a doc was ready and launched. This comes after the 10-page doc drew a pointy response from college students and lecturers, who’ve termed it draconian. Late on Thursday, Chief Proctor Rajnish Kumar Mishra issued a notification saying the doc on guidelines and self-discipline of JNU college students is withdrawn, citing administrative causes. The doc titled ‘Rules of Discipline and correct conduct of scholars of JNU’ had laid out punishments for various sorts of acts like protests and forgery, and procedures for proctorial enquiry and recording a press release.Â
The punishment ranged from a nice of Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000 or rustication and cancellation of admission. According to the now-withdrawn guidelines, a scholar would possibly face a nice of Rs 50,000 for bodily violence, abuse and manhandling in the direction of one other scholar, employees, or school members.
“I was not aware of such a circular. I am in Hubli for an international conference. The chief proctor did not consult me before releasing the document. I was not aware that such a document is being drafted. I got to know about it through newspapers. That is why, I have withdrawn it,” JNU Vice-Chancellor Pandit instructed PTI.
In the notification, the chief proctor stated the doc has been withdrawn on the VC’s route. PTI checked the college web site for the doc, however discovered none.
“In view of administrative reasons, the notification dated 28.2.2023 in respect of rules of discipline and proper conduct of students of JNU is hereby withdrawn. This has been issued on the directions of the Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor,” the notification learn.
According to the now-deleted doc, the foundations got here into impact on February 3. It got here after the college witnessed a slew of protests over the screening of a BBC documentary. The guidelines doc said that it has been accredited by the Executive Council, the very best decision-making physique of the college.
Punishments had been listed for 17 “crimes”, together with blockage, indulging in playing, unauthorised occupation of hostel rooms, use of abusive and derogatory language and committing forgery. The guidelines additionally point out {that a} copy of the complaints can be despatched to the mother and father.
It proposed punishments for all acts of violence and coercion resembling gheraos, sit-ins or any variation which disrupt regular tutorial and administrative functioning and/or any act which incites or results in violence.
The punishments included “cancellation of admission or withdrawal of degree or denial of registration for a specified period, rustication up to four semesters and/or declaring any part or the entire JNU campus out of bounds, expulsion, a fine of up to Rs 30,000 according to the old rules, one/two semesters of eviction from the hostel”.
For starvation strikes, dharnas, group bargaining and another type of protest by blocking the doorway or exit of any of the educational and/or administrative complexes or disrupting the actions of any member of the college neighborhood, a nice of as much as Rs 20,000 needed to be levied.
According to the previous guidelines, for gheraos, demonstrations and sexual harassment, the proposed punishments had been cancellation of admission, rustication and expulsion.
An Executive Council member, who didn’t want to be named, has stated the matter was not mentioned at size within the EC assembly and “we were told that the rules have been created for court matters”.
Another Executive Council member Brahma Prakash Singh stated: “The university might have planned to streamline the process and prepare a full document but it should have been discussed in the EC meeting properly. Some of the rules are absurd.” Student teams have condemned the foundations doc.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s JNU secretary Vikas Patel on Wednesday termed the brand new guidelines “authoritarian (‘tughlaqi’)” whereas asserting that the previous code of conduct was sufficiently efficient. He demanded a rollback of this “draconian” code of conduct.
