Plea in Delhi HC assails DU's decision to ban meetings, protests

New Delhi, Feb 23 (PTI) A law student from Campus Law Centre on Wednesday approached the Delhi High Court to challenge Delhi University's decision to ban public meetings, processions, demonstrations and protests on campus for a month over concerns of obstruction of traffic, threats to safety and disturbance of public peace.

Justice Jasmeet Singh made the Delhi Police a party to the proceedings and directed that the petition by Uday Bhadoriya be treated as a public interest litigation.

The court listed the matter for further hearing in March before the bench headed by Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya.

In his petition, Bhadoriya said the DU Proctor notified the ban on February 17 without any consultation or discussion with the students' union, colleges, the teachers' union, the executive council or the academic council.

The "blanket prohibition", the plea asserted, was issued arbitrarily and was "vague" and disproportionate as well as in contravention of the fundamental rights of free speech and expression, peaceful assembly and free movement.

It added that on the basis of the ban, DU colleges were not conducting events or seminars, and even the annual fests have either been cancelled or postponed.

"Discussion is very core to the educational institutes' -- An educational institute, campus, or college cannot be seen as a place for making such kind of a restriction. Educational institutes are a place where students learn, this place cannot be curbed and silenced through order. Freedom of speech and expression is at the core of the fundamental rights of any citizen in the country, that too in an educational institute," said the petition.

The ban order by DU came after the recent controversies, where two FIRs were registered by Delhi Police earlier this month after a scuffle broke out between two student groups during a protest.

On 12 February, a bucket of water was thrown on historian Irfan Habib while he was speaking in a social justice programme. PTI ADS RHL