March 16, 2019:

On Friday, students of the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL), Patiala have come out in protest against the suspension of six students residing at campus hostel.

As a response to this action of suspension, a protest erupted in the boys’ hostel on Wednesday over the quality of mess food being served.

The manner in which the suspension was imposed has concerned students of maladministration at university.

In a bid to resolve the mounting protests, RGNUL Chancellor & Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Krishna Murari is expected to meet the students this evening.

The students have been suspended with accusations of having “indulged in indiscipline and hooliganism”  in the boys’ hostel.

A committee comprising the Administrative Officer and other hostel authorities/faculty had been constituted shortly after this protest. The committee affixed the blame on six students who were served the order of suspension. As per a source, the students were directed to vacate the hostel premises within an hour of being served the suspension order, despite the fact that they were students from other states.

A faculty member also confiscated the phone of a student during the interrogation process that held before suspension. The student was forced to unlock his phone for the faculty to access, in a bid to find out whether any blame could be fixed on other students. The confiscated phone was then retained by the faculty. Objections made against such an intrusion were met with verbal abuse from the faculty, as per student representatives.

“Upon insisting that fundamental right of privacy are being violated, the Faculty shamelessly and unreasonably responded with abuses and stated that the students are in no position to teach them the Law”, states a statement issued by students.

The suspension order has been faulted for having been passed without any formal hearing and in the absence of University Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Paramjit Jaswal.

Instead, the order has only been signed off by the “Administrative Officer”.

Students have protested the same as wrongful, arbitrary & violative of the law governing RGNUL.

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