Students at DU’s law department begin hunger strike seeking exam postponement

A section of students of the Delhi University's Faculty of Law said they have begun a hunger strike on Saturday demanding postponement of their examination while contending that their syllabus has not been completed. The protesting students of the second, fourth and sixth semesters also demanded changes in the date sheet to ensure a sufficient gap between two papers.

The students of Campus Law Centre (CLC), and Law Centre I and II are holding the protest. They claimed their syllabus has not been finished and online classes are still underway but the exams are scheduled from August 10. "We have begun a hunger strike until our demands are met. A few students' blood pressure has gone down. But we are not ending the strike till the administration postpones the examination," Swapnil, a law faculty student, said.

Several students sat on dharna and held placards that read: 'Don't play with our careers' and 'We are humans not machines'. Sakhti Singh, a second-semester student at the Law Faculty, said the students have been protesting for the last few days and even though the officials gave them assurances, nothing has happened. "We have begun a hunger strike. We just want the exam to be postponed for a week so that there is enough time to prepare. The date sheet is not rightly made, there are not enough gaps between two examinations," Mr Sakhti added.

Gunjan, another student at the Law faculty alleged that the exam date sheet is not balanced. "I have one examination on the 10th and another on the 13th. So, only two days have been given to prepare for the other paper which requires more time because it is a lengthy subject. We are not asking for cancellation, just postponement," she said.

Meanwhile, Dean of Examination D S Rawat said the academic calendar was issued before the start of the semester and it mentioned the date of the examination. "The university provides the academic calendar and the department prepares the date sheet accordingly. The date sheet of the PG courses is decided by the department.

The role of the department is to check if they have followed the academic schedule issued by the registrar," he said.