“Bacche hai hum, kaidi nahi; College hai ye, jail nahi!”

(We are kids, not prisoners; This is a college, not jail)

These slogans rent the air as the students of National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal, gathered outside the academic block on Thursday morning to protest against the varsity’s maladministration and lack of transparency. Students have alleged that corruption and arbitrariness runs rife and unchecked in the university.

The protests erupted after an alleged incident where a professor passed a fourth-year student by granting an additional 10 marks due to personal bias. “When confronted, the professor gave us a flimsy explanation and said that the question had not been evaluated, and thus she had increased 7.5 marks,” said a student requesting anonymity. Students’ protests found no result as the issue was dismissed due to the collusion between administration and faculty, the protesters have alleged.

NLIU student body has also written a letter to the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court, Hemant Gupta, who is the Chairman of the College’s General Council, informing him of their plight. In the letter, they have raised a lot of other issues as well such as the delay in the release of examination results, accountability of professors, irregularities in the re-evaluation process, library timing, hostel facilities and attendance grievance.

In the letter, students allege that “this is not the first instance of maladministration of the university officials and that there have been numerous instances in the past which have been brought to the notice of the director, SS Singh, but no action was taken to cure or even pay attention to these grievances of the students.”

“Classes at NLIU have been put on hold indefinitely, with the students planning their future course of action,” the letter concludes.

“The director tried to intimidate protesters by shouting and asking for their names and batches to take action against them,” said another student on condition of anonymity. “The authorities are openly hostile to the students. The director even tried to flee the scene without answering the students or media, and one of the professors commented, “Dekhte hain kab tak baithe ho” (let’s see how long you can continue this for),” added the student.

As the administration is trying to avoid media attention, students have been speaking to media outlets anonymously and using social media platforms to air their grievances with the hashtags “#FreeNLIU” and “#PinjraTod”.

The students have also sent written complaints to the University Grants Commission, the Bar Council of India and various media powerhouses regarding the conduct of the college administration. The protesters have also raised a cry against the sexist attitude of the college as a part of the Pinjra Tod movement by defying the curfew to curfew all night.

Newslaundry has sent an email to Singh seeking a response. Multiple calls to the university’s registrar, Ravi Pande, went unanswered. The piece will be updated as and when we get their responses.