‘Not surprised they blatantly misrepresented our protest’ : HNLU row

The Student body of Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU) has been protesting since August 27,  in the aftermath of the Chhattisgarh High Court quashing the illegal tenure extension of the erstwhile Vice-Chancellor.

What initially began as a fight against arbitrary curfew timings, soon snowballed into a full-fledged movement that demanded an end to rampant corruption, maladministration, sexual harassment, caste discrimination, flagrant disregard of the UGC mandates and financial opacity.

Numerous students stayed awake all night observing a peaceful protest and organised themselves outside the registrar’s office at the start of the business day. Classes and other academic activities were boycotted as a mark of protest. Such was to remain the status quo until the appointment of an interim Vice Chancellor took place.

Two days after the High Court judgment, Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi, ex-officio Chancellor of the University, had ordered that Ravi Shankar Sharma, Principal Secretary of the Law and Legislative Affairs Department, take over as the VC, in addition to his other duties. The new VC addressed the student body, with the President of HNLU Student Bar Association communicating the primary demands raised by them.

A variety of issues were put forth—including the appointment of independent wardens, the six centres of excellence of the University which exist only on paper, and, implementation of a review commission to periodically evaluate the performance of the University, as well as a feedback system to assess teacher performance.

Snehal Ranjan Shukla, President, Student Bar Association, HNLU stated: “The demand for constituting a ‘Review Commission’ as per HNLU Adhiniyam Act, 2003 has been accepted by the VC sir and has assured that the Hon’ble Chancellor sir would be constituting it soon. We had put forth a 14-point demand in front of the Vice Chancellor, some of which he accepted, the others he assured us would be taken into consideration after deliberation.”

Although the VC responded positively to several issues raised and agreed to proceed to work for the same, any definitive action on the primary demands enlisted in the statement put forth by the students, remains to be seen. The students have, since then, been attending classes, while ensuring that the faculty members and administration were made aware of the continuance of the protest.

Over the course of the last 7 days, the students have organised themselves and carried out various acts of civil disobedience and protest such as forming a human chain around the academic block, symbolically gagging our mouths with black ribbon, and organising a ‘flashlight march’ around the campus, with the administration terming such acts as  ‘terrorising’ and that of ‘lynching mob.’

“We’re not surprised they blatantly misrepresented our protest, as they have been peddling lies to us since we joined this University,” said a final year law student.

Students across the country have begun to extend their sympathy with the HNLU protest as a vast majority of them are victims of the systemic defects of the higher education system themselves.

National Law Universities across the country also have come out in support of the movement with a joint statement of solidarity saying: “We empathise with the students of HNLU and their struggle against the capricious actions of their administration. It is agonising to witness the whimsical actions of the administration in imposing unreasonable campus and library curfews, the absolute absence of transparency and accountability and the illegitimate extension of the Vice Chancellor’s tenure… The student bodies of NLSIU, NALSAR and NUJS would like to recall and emphasise their previously released statement calling for the nationalisation and grant of Institutes of National Importance (INI) status to NLUs.”

Since August 27, the movement has gained enormous traction across social media, prompting several influential personalities to have tweeted in support of the HNLU student body, and extending their solidarity with the movement. The movement has also been covered on numerous news channels, both local and national, as well as garnered a great deal of coverage across websites and e-news platforms.

Not only is the movement an example of peaceful agitation against oppression and arbitrariness for the scores of students across the country to witness, but it has also instilled the student body of HNLU with an immense sense of hope, pride, and emotions that could seldom be claimed by them otherwise. 

“We’re making HNLU a happy place for everyone to grow and learn,” said another first-year student.