JNU v. JNUSU: Battle continues in Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to pass an interim order seeking an undertaking from JNU Students Union (JNUSU) that no protests will take place in the administrative block..Justice V Kameswar Rao remarked that the interim order already in place protects JNU officials and adjourned the matter..When the matter came up for hearing on Friday, JNUSU sought adjournment citing absence of Senior Counsel..The Court decided to adjourn the matter..Advocate Monika Arora, appearing for JNU, prayed that an undertaking be given by JNUSU that no protests will take place within the administrative block..Justice Rao then asked,.“Ma’am. You have an interim order. Does that not take care of your interests?”.Arora replied in the affirmative whereupon the Court said that it will not state anything further..The case is a contempt of court petition against four office bearers of the JNU Students Union (JNUSU)..The contempt petition was filed by JNU against JNUSU President Geeta Kumari, Vice President Simone Zoya Khan, General Secretary Duggirala Srikrisha and Joint Secretary Shubhanshu Singh..The petition is based on an order passed by the Delhi High Court on August 9 last year wherein it had, while allowing students the right to protest, directed that “no protest of any sort shall be undertaken by the students within 100 meters radius of the Administrative Block”..The Court had also directed that if its order was not complied with, JNU would be at liberty to request the police authorities for assistance to maintain law and order in the campus. However, the Court also recorded that police authorities shall act only on the evidence of obstruction to ingress/ egress to the Administrative Building, being provided by the Authorities, which may be in the form of CCTV footage..The trigger for the present contempt petition was a protest demonstration by JNU Students against the attendance policy and the indefinite postponement of meeting of Academic Council..The students had raised their objection to the new attendance policy put in place by JNU. JNU administration had initially agreed that it will consider their views in the Academic Council meeting and had scheduled the meeting for February 23..Subsequently, it was announced that the meeting has been postponed indefinitely triggering protests from students near the administrative building..This promoted JNU to file petition alleging that the students had violated the August 9 order..On February 20, the Court had passed an interim order that the students should not block the ingress/egress to the administrative building..The case will now be heard on May 1..Advocates Abhik Chimni and Govind Manoharan represented JNUSU office bearers.