Aligarh Muslim University’s act of removing a BJP flag from an MLA’s vehicle after it had entered the campus will now go to the Supreme Court.

The university has decided to challenge in the apex court an Allahabad High Court order refusing to quash criminal proceedings against members of the varsity’s proctorial board for having the flag removed from the SUV of Barauli MLA Dalveer Singh.

The vehicle had come to take Vijay Kumar Singh, grandson of Dalveer and a first-year BA student, home on October 22 last year.

Its driver Guddu Singh later complained to the chief judicial magistrate’s court against proctor Brij Bhushan Singh and the 12 other members of the board, alleging they had forcibly removed the flag and manhandled him.

The university petitioned the high court on January 23 this year to quash the case, arguing its rules banned political parties’ flags inside the campus. On November 21, the bench of Justice J.J. Munir passed an order refusing to stop the proceedings in the lower court.

University spokesperson Shafey Kidwai said everyone on the campus — students, teachers and other staff —“meticulously” followed the ban on political parties’ flags.

“After we failed to secure relief from the high court, the university management decided at a meeting to approach the Supreme Court to quash proceeding against university members who were doing their duty,” Kidwai said on Thursday.

“The members of the proctorial board were standing at the Bab-e-Sayed, the main gate of the university, when the SUV entered the campus. The driver said the vehicle belonged to a BJP leader and that he had come to take a student home. But, following the university rules, the board members removed the flag.”