The Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, T.S. Sivagnanam, on Monday said that as students have been held responsible for the tragic death of another student recently, the court should hear their arguments first.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sivagnanam, which was hearing a public interest litigation moved by a Trinamul Congress supporter, directed the petitioner to make all student unions party to the case and fixed the matter for hearing two weeks later.
In the same order, the bench asked Jadavpur University to file a detailed report on the student’s death.
“It seems that students are being held responsible for the tragic incident. So the court should hear the submissions by the students first,” the Chief Justice said during the hearing.
He also said: “The death of a student is very sad. But the issue should be settled by the university authorities through discussions with student leaders. Intervention by different political parties in the matter would merely create trauma in the minds of students and their education would be hampered.”
Moving the petition on behalf of the petitioner, senior advocate and Trinamul MP Kalyan Banerjee said the university authorities were responsible for the death.
“The authorities do not have any control over the students. It is the prime duty of the university authorities to provide safety and security to students, especially to residential students,” Banerjee said.
He alleged that the students’ hostels at JU had turned into “dens of anti-socials”.
“Three vice-chancellors had to leave... as they tried to install closed-circuit cameras.... Since the management has failed, the judiciary should intervene forthwith,” Banerjee said.
After hearing Banerjee, the Chief Justice asked counsel for JU, Saumya Majumdar, whether there were specific rules on where new residential students would stay and whether there was any restriction on entering the hostels where new students were staying.
“The university authorities will have to see whether outsiders are being allowed to enter the hostels of fresh students,” the Chief Justice said.
Advocate Majumdar said political parties have been holding agitations inside the university since the death of the first-year student on August 10. “Employees and students are also holding rallies.”