JNU compulsory attendance row: Delhi HC orders students not to obstruct entry of VC and staff into administrative block

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) not to obstruct the vice chancellor and other staff from entering the administrative block to carry out their work. [caption id=“attachment_4349729” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Delhi High Court. PTI[/caption] The high court passed the interim order on JNU’s plea which said that the protest near the administrative block was hampering its day-to-day functioning, including the disbursal salaries in connection with the Seventh Pay Commission. The students had on Thursday blockaded the administration block demanding a meeting with the Vice Chancellor on the issue of compulsory attendance and stopped the two rectors from leaving the building. Justice VK Rao said the interim order would be in force for the next three days from Saturday and said the university was at liberty to request police assistance to maintain law and order in the campus. “The respondents (the JNU Students Union’s four office bearers including its President) shall not block the ingress and egress of the VC, Pro VC, registrar and connected staff to the administrative block of the university for Saturday, day-after-tomorrow and on Monday,” the court said. The court, however, made it clear that the order “should not preclude” the students from peacefully protesting at the Sabarmati lawn in the campus away from the administrative block. It also issued notice to the JNU Students Union President and three others and sought their response by 20 February on the university’s plea claiming that the high court’s order asking them not to protest within 100 metres of the administrative block was being violated. The university’s plea, seeking contempt action against the students who allegedly violated the court order, was mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar which allowed it to be listed for hearing on Friday. JNU has claimed that the ongoing protests in the university campus were in violation of the high court’s 9 August, 2017 direction to the students not to stage any agitation within 100 metres of the administrative block, which houses several offices including that of the Vice Chancellor. The last year’s order had come during the hearing of the JNU administration’s petition against the blocking of its administrative block by agitating students.