Allahabad High Court
Deeksha Dwivedi & 3 Others vs Union Of India Thru' Secy. & 2 ... on 25 November, 2014
Bench: Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, Chief Justice, Pradeep Kumar Baghel
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
Chief Justice's Court AFR
Case :- PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 61150 of 2014
Petitioner :- Deeksha Dwivedi & 3 Others
Respondent :- Union Of India Thru' Secy. & 2 Others
Counsel for Petitioner :- Vishal Kashyap,Smriti Kartikeya
Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,Arvind Kumar Goswami,Gyan Prakash,Ikram Ahmad
Hon'ble Dr. Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud,Chief Justice
Hon'ble Pradeep Kumar Singh Baghel,J.
The petition has been filed in public interest by four students of Law, two of them from the University of Allahabad, one from Gujarat National Law University and another from Christ University, Bangalore. All the students are working as Interns with the Human Rights Law Network.
Aligarh Muslim University1, which is spread over 467.6 hectares in the city of Aligarh, offers more than three hundred courses in conventional and modern branches of education.
The grievance emanates from articles which were published in the city editions of the Indian Express, The Times of India and The Hindu on 12 November 2014. These news articles attributed to the Vice Chancellor a decision not to allow access to undergraduate women students to the main library situated in the campus of the University. The news article in The Times of India attributes a statement to the Vice Chancellor, the third respondent, that the main library at the University campus is over crowded, which led to the decision.
When the Court took up the matter on 14 November 2014, the Court observed, prima facie, without expressing a conclusive or final opinion on the issues raised that any effort to regulate a problem of 'over crowding' in a campus library would have to be on a gender neutral basis. A breach of gender neutrality would involve an infraction of constitutional norms in relation to the guarantees of equality under Article 14 and of gender identity under Article 15 of the Constitution. Since the petition was based on newspaper reports, we had considered it appropriate to direct service of the proceedings on the second and the third respondents. In the meantime, the Court expected that the second and the third respondents would deal with the matter as responsible statutory authorities should and resolve an unseemly controversy having due regard to the letter and spirit of the constitutional provisions.
In pursuance of the order of the Court dated 14 November 2014, counsel entered on behalf of the second and the third respondents. A statement has been handed over to the Court of the position of the second and the third respondents. For convenience of reference, we reproduce the statement in its entirety:
"It is to clarify that there is no restrictions on entry of girls studying at AMU main campus to the Maulana Azad Library (MAL). Total number of female members of the Maulana Azad Library during the session 2013-14 was 2757.
2. It is only girls of Women's College, which is located three kilometres away, who have not been given membership upto academic session 2013-14 for the following reasons:
(a) Women's College already has a well stocked library on their campus (Total number of Volumes 56065 and total number of Titles 14778). The complete catalogue of Maulana Azad Library is available on the net and the girls of Women's College can place demands for books. It is regrettable that the number of demands for books has been minuscule (From session 2012 to 2014, total number of demands was only 21 Books.).
(b) The Maulana Azad Library is always over crowded despite being open 18 hours from 08:00 am to 02.00 am, seven day a week. It was constructed when it had to cater for 7000 students. Now the strength is 28000. There are seven reading Halls having the capacity to seat 1150 students at a time.
(c) Safety of girls moving from Women's College to Maulana Azad Library, especially after dark, is a major security hazard because lumpen elements of Aligarh city. There have been several cases of chain snatching and "eve teasing". This aspect can be taken care of if the girls can be conveyed by bus. Unfortunately there was a total ban on purchase of new vehicles, by Universities, till it was clarified that replacements for condemned vehicles could be resorted to.
(d) The Vice-Chancellor on 10 June 2013 had written a personal letter to each parent of girls studying in Women's College explaining the situation and asking them if they would take responsibility for security of their daughters/wards in case they were permitted to visit the Library. Only one parent gave consent. A copy of the letter is placed before the Court.
3. In the current session 2014-15, the following decisions have been taken by the University on 19 May 2014:
(a) In place of 2 separate cards, currently being used in the University for Maulana Azad Library and general use, only single card with RFID & Bar Coded Enrolment Number will be made for all students w.e.f. session 2014-15. This will also function as the Library Card.
(b) A card will be valid for the whole duration of the course.
All students, both boys and girls will be members of the Mualana Azad Library by default, from the session 2014-15 once Identity-cum-Library Card is issued to them. The girl students of the Women's College will thus become members of Maulana Azad Library.
4. It is very unfortunate to note that AMU underwent "Trial by Media" on an issue of a "smile" by the Vice Chancellor to underscore his argument which was wrongly misinterpreted and linked with issue of "Gender bias". In Aligarh Muslim University, we have been striving for women's empowerment and they enjoy equal status and facilities, at par with boy students.
5. There is a pressing requirement for expansion of Maulana Azad Library to cater for the students of Aligarh Muslim University for which special allocation of funds are required, the Hon'ble High Court may direct the Government (Ministry of H.R.D.) to provide special allocation of funds of Rs.20 crores for this purpose.
6. The Aligarh Muslim University Women's College was established in 1936, as a constituent college, located approx. 03 kms away from main campus. The Women's College is a fully furnished self contained undergraduate College with its own Library, Laboratories, Hostels, Hall and Sports facilities etc. The details of the Women's College Library are as follows:
1.Total No. of Volumes : 56,065
2.Total No. of Titles : 14,778
3.Total No. of Students (Strength) : 2,456
4.Total No. of Students enrolled in Library: 2,367
Azad Library on request of the students during
sessions 2012 to 2014.
8.Total No. of Books available in the Reading Rooms: 1,863
7. It may also be noted that all undergraduates of Delhi and Bombay Universities are debarred from accessing Central Reference Library or Ratan Tata Library because they have libraries in their own colleges. Aligarh Muslim University is being treated with a separate yardstick.
8.In the light of the above, the news reports as well as the PIL filed by the four law students are not based on actual facts and records. There is no discriminations between boys and girls in Aligarh Muslim University in general and libraries in particular. Hence, the PIL is liable to be rejected."
The first aspect, which has been clarified in the statement is that there is no restriction on the entry of women studying at the main campus of the University to Maulana Azad Library. The issue before the Court pertains to the decision which was taken about access to the Maulana Azad Library to undergraduate women students studying at the Women's College, which is located three kilometres away. From the statement, it appears that membership of the Maulana Azad Library ("main library") was denied to women undergraduate students upto academic session 2013-14 for the following reasons:
(i) The Women's College has a well stocked library on its campus;
(ii) There is over crowing at the Maulana Azad Library;
(iii) The safety of women travelling from Women's College to Maulana Azad Library cannot be ensured;
(iv) The Vice Chancellor had written a letter to every parent of women students studying at the College on 10 June 2013 asking them whether they would take responsibility for maintaining the security of their daughters/wards in the event they were permitted to visit library, but only one parent gave his/her consent.
We shall shortly consider the legitimacy of the rationale which has been placed before the Court on behalf of the University and the Vice Chancellor. Before that we would note of the fact that the University has now taken a decision that during the current academic session, one single card would be utilized by all students both for Maulana Azad Library and for general use with RFID & bar coded enrolment numbers. This, it has been stated, would also function as a library card and the card would be valid for the entire duration of the course. In view of this statement, we have been assured by counsel appearing on behalf of the second and the third respondents that access to all students, men and women, to Maulana Azad Library would be permitted beginning with the current academic session once Identity Card-cum-Library Cards are issued. This shall be done expeditiously. Consequently, women students pursuing their education at Women's College would also be members of Maulana Azad Library. We record the assurance which has been placed before the Court.
The statement which has been placed on the record raises three aspects which are of serious concern. We are conscious of the fact that the intervention by a Court in a matter of academic policy under Article 226 of the Constitution must be circumspect. Courts normally do not interfere with decisions of Universities and expert bodies on issues of academic policy. At the same time, where a decision of a statutory authority has an important bearing on the protection of fundamental human freedoms, particularly those contained in Part III of the Constitution, judicial review would not be excluded merely because the decision is that of an academic body. The effort of the Court in such cases is not to substitute its own view of what appears to be a correct or proper academic policy for the policy which has been adopted by the University, but to determine whether a particular decision violates a constitutional standard.
The first aspect of concern for the Court, in these proceedings, is that a statutory body like a University in its decision making process and in the decision which it takes cannot discriminate between men and women students. Where a University regulates a problem of inadequacy of space and of over crowding, any regulatory measure has to be on a gender neutral basis. Gender cannot be a basis of exclusion from the means of acquiring information and knowledge.
In the present case, it is not in dispute that prior to the decision which has now been taken for 2014-15 to allow access to all including women undergraduate students to Maulana Azad Library, access to men undergraduate students was not barred. The exclusion was of undergraduate women students who are pursuing their education at the Women's College. This, in our opinion, raises a matter of serious constitutional impropriety because a regulatory measure cannot target a section of the students on the basis of gender and exclude them from access to the facilities of a University purportedly on the ground that the facilities are over stretched. Regulatory measures are, undoubtedly, permissible such as by regulating the hours of use for a certain class of students, but it would be impermissible to exclude women undergraduate students from access to a facility where access is not denied to men undergraduate students. Women cannot be tasked to exclusively bear the burdens of overcrowding.
The second aspect of concern is the justification which is offered by the University and the Vice Chancellor for excluding women undergraduate students of Women's College from Maulana Azad Library, on the ground that 'the lumpen elements of Aligarh city', as they have been described, pose a danger to the security of women students. Dangers to the safety of women students and indeed, on a wider canvass, dangers to the safety of women in the city cannot be addressed by excluding women from access to a public facility or for that matter, by preventing access on the ground of safety. Dangers to the safety of women have to be taken care of by the University in close collaboration with the law enforcement agencies. Women cannot be discriminated against in the pursuit of education and, as an integral part of that pursuit, in seeking access to the facility of a university library on the ground that access to the library would pose a danger to their safety. The Constitution guarantees the right to life and right to pursue the development of the personality. This is the core of ordered liberty and cannot be denied or violated on such grounds. History is replete with examples where, in the name of preserving 'honour and dignity' the most egregious of violations have been committed against women. Dangers to personal safety must be met by curbing those dangers by proper policing and not by excluding access to women to places for the pursuit of knowledge.
This leads us to the third area of concern, which is a letter addressed by the Vice Chancellor on 10 June 2013 to parents of women students pursuing their education in the University asking them whether they would take responsibility for the security of their daughters/wards in case they were permitted to visit the Library. It is stated that only one parent gave his/her consent. This, in our opinion, is patently discriminatory. First and foremost, it is the bounden duty of the statutory authority, which admits women students, to ensure that an environment, conducive to proper education is made available in the University. To ask a parent of a woman undergraduate student whether he/she would take responsibility for the safety of his/her daughter or ward is an abdication by the authority to perform its primary role of ensuring the safety of women students. This is constitutionally not permissible.
In view of this, we are of the view that the above considerations which weighed with the University in its decision to exclude women undergraduate students from the use of Maulana Azad Library was constitutionally impermissible since admittedly, the use of the same facility was not denied to men undergraduate students of the University. However, since better sense has now prevailed and appropriate action has been taken consistent with the spirit and ethos of the Constitution, we have accepted the assurance which has been placed before the Court, on behalf of the University. However, the issues raised important constitutional questions in regard to the role, position and identity of women students in our society. We have hence elucidated the legal and constitutional position as it appears from the norms embodied in Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution, to underscore that any attempt to discriminate against women students will run a serious risk of being declared to be in violation of the fundamental human freedoms that are conferred by the Constitution on men and women alike in our society. Since the University has now taken a decision to ensure uniform access to Maulana Azad Library to men and women students, we let the matter rest there.
We observe that in the event the Vice Chancellor makes a request to the district administration for upgrading the level of policing and for taking necessary steps for the protection and safety of women students, necessary co-operation would be extended to the authorities of the University to obviate dangers to safety.
The petition is, accordingly, disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.
Order Date :- 25.11.2014
RKK/-
(P.K.S. Baghel, J) (Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, CJ)
