|| Amisha Airen
According to the most recent rules at Jawaharlal Nehru University, students can be fined up to Rs 30,000 or have their admissions cancelled if they conduct dharnas or engage in violent behaviour.
The 10-page “Rules of Discipline and proper conduct of students of JNU” outlines processes for prosecutorial inquiries and statement-taking as well as penalties for various behaviours like protests and forgery.
The paper states that the regulations became effective on February 3. It came after the institution saw numerous demonstrations against the showing of a BBC documentary. The Executive Council, the university’s highest decision-making group, gave its approval to the rules document, according to the document.
However, Executive Council members informed PTI that the problem was brought as an additional agenda item and it was mentioned that this document has been prepared for “court matters”.
“Subsequently, either a one/two/three member(s) proctorial enquiry committee to conduct an in-depth investigation into the matter. Proctorial enquiry is an internal enquiry of JNU and hence, no other person except the Board members is allowed to be present during hearings.”
“The accused or complainants is not allowed to be represented by a third party. Similarly, he/she cannot have an observer during the process of enquiry,” the document read.
An Executive Council member, who does not wish to be named, said the matter was not discussed at length in the EC meeting and “we were told that the rules have been created for court matters”.
Brahma Prakash Singh, Executive Council member also stated that “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.” The ABVP’s JNU Secretary Vikas Patel said, “There is no need for this new authoritarian (‘tuglaki’) code of conduct. The old code of conduct was sufficiently effective.”
