Three more Law Schools namely, NUJS, Kolkata, Amity Law School and ILS Pune have come forward to issue statements of solidarity with the students of Jamia Milia Islamia (Jamia) and the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
The statement released by NUJS in its website reads,
“We further strongly condemn the disproportionate and atrocious exercise of force by the police and extend our unconditional support to the students of these colleges and all other colleges in the exercise of their constitutional rights. We sincerely urge other National Law Universities to come together to join the Statement.“
Similar statements have also been issued by Amity Law School and ILS Pune. In their statement of unconditional support, the students of Amity Law School state,
“Over the last few days, the police has included in blatant use of tear gas and lathi charge against unarmed students … we believe the actions of the police were completely unwarranted, disproportionate and antithetical to the values we most cherish as a constitutional democracy.“
The strongly worded ILS Pune statement states,
“We remind the state machinery that under our constitutional framework, the right to peaceful protest is safeguarded as a fundamental right under Part III. It ought not to come as a shock to the ruling establishments in various states where the protests are on-going that a vote is not a solemn declaration of irrevocable acceptance for all times to come. A vote is not a bargain for silence without dissent.”
Yesterday a Joint Statement of solidarity was issued by the student bodies of 8 National Law Universities namely NLSIU, NALSAR, HNLU, NLU-O, NUSRL, NUALS, MNLU Mumbai and MNLU Nagpur against the violent Police atrocities at AMU and Jamia.
The students of these NLUs expressed strong condemnation of the violence and use of brute force against the protests organised by students of AMU and Jamia.
Interestingly, apart from a growing list of Indian Universities and educational institutions, students and alumni from US-based Universities have also come forward to condemn the violence. In this regard, a joint statement has been signed by over 400 students from various universities across the United States, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford and Tufts.
Earlier today, the issue had come before the Supreme Court. However, the top Court directed that the concerns be presented before the concerned jurisdictional High Court instead. .
[Read the Amity Law School statement here]
[Read the NUJS statement here]
[Read the ILS Pune statement here]