JNU is in the dock, its distinctive tradition of debate in peril

Since its inception, JNU’s reputation as an institution of academic excellence has owed much to a vibrant culture of debate involving the university’s students, faculty and administration. This argumentative ethos, nurtured by internal mechanisms that encouraged the resolution of disputes through dialogue, has not only been a catalyst for JNU’s consistently creditable performance in the national rankings for higher institutions, but is also one of the major reasons for a large number of JNU students going on to become prominent faces in political parties of all hues. Today, however, the university is at a crossroads. An investigation by this newspaper into the growing number of court cases the university is involved in sheds light on the fraying relationship between the administration, faculty and students. The institution has featured in over 600 Delhi High Court cases during the tenure of the current vice chancellor, Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, and her two predecessors.

That a large number of these cases pertain to protests and free speech-related issues is disquieting. It suggests that a space where students and faculty were once encouraged and empowered to ask questions and raise doubts is under siege, let down by those whose responsibility it was to nurture it. In several cases, the HC has called out the JNU administration for procedural lapses. It decided in favour of students in at least 19 of the 38 cases that were adjudicated during the tenure of the current VC. Litigation had peaked under her predecessor, M Jagadesh Kumar (2016-2022), when the university was involved in 118 cases — 92 of them filed by students. The court offered them relief in 40 cases, citing violation of the principles of natural justice in at least 15.

Litigation may have been more muted under the current VC, but the administration has persisted with its sledgehammer approach. The Students’ Discipline and Conduct Rules, which came into effect in 2023, list expulsion from hostels, rustication from the university and penalties up to Rs 20,000 — way more than the average fee of its postgraduate courses — as punishment for any protest within a 100 m radius of an academic or administrative building on campus or even around faculty residences. One of the lawsuits pertains to a Rs 6,000 fine imposed on a student for writing graffiti on the university’s walls — a longstanding JNU tradition. In 2023, JNU adopted the motto “Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya” (from darkness unto light). This paper’s investigation shows that the university administrators have much to do to enable JNU’s students to live up to this credo of knowledge without fear.