New Delhi: The Calcutta high court has stayed the three-year rustication of three Visva-Bharati University students, noting that the punishment was “excessive and disproportionate” against what the students had been charged with, the Indian Express reported. While the court has barred further protests, students have said the movement against the Vice-Chancellor will persist in other forms.
The order was issued on Wednesday, September 8. Rustication is a temporary expulsion used as a punitive measure.
The university had, on August 23, rusticated the three students, Rupa Chakraborty, Somnath Sow and Falguni Pan for allegedly “disrupting the academic atmosphere in the university compound.” Additionally, a report by the university enquiry committee accused the students of attempting to “besmirch the university’s administrative decisions and universal high reputation.”
Justice Rajashekhar Mantha, while revoking the rustication of the three students on Wednesday, noted that faculty members were “equally aggrieved by the alleged high-handedness of the Vice-Chancellor” and, stating that the rustication order be kept in abeyance, said that the students should be permitted to participate in academic activities, according to a report by the Telegraph.
Justice Mantha went on to say that, “The professors may institute appropriate proceedings challenging the orders of suspension in accordance with law,” posting the matter for further hearing on September 15.
Wednesday’s court order also reiterated that all protests and demonstrations, within or outside the campus must cease and that all structures constructed for that purpose must be dismantled.
Rupa Chakraborty, who had gone on a hunger strike to protest against the decision, ended her protest following the revocation of her rustication, however maintained that the movement against the V-C and other alleged irregularities within the university would continue in different forms.
Fellow student Sow also echoed her sentiment that the action against the V-C would continue.
Visva-Bharati versus V-C
On the same day as the three students, two members of the university’s faculty were also suspended on the grounds of “gross indiscipline and misconduct” which took the number of suspensions of teachers and non-teaching staff to 20, according to another report by the Indian Express.
Also read: ‘Political Vendetta’ Alleged in Suspension of Visva-Bharati Professor
Following these events, the university saw widespread protests by students as well as several faculty members demanding that the rustications be revoked and the Vice-Chancellor, Bidyut Chakrabarty, be removed. A section of the protestors even staged a sit-in outside the V-C’s residence.
On September 3, the high court barred protests outside the V-C’s home, declaring that no agitation could be held within 50 metres from either the academic or administrative buildings in the campus or the V-C’s home.
In the meantime, the university paused the admission process and withheld the publication of results, claiming that these processes would not be possible until normalcy was returned to the campus. University authorities also filed a writ petition with the court demanding police presence to return normalcy to the campus.
Since Bidyut Chakrabarty was appointed V-C, the university has courted several controversies. In July, 2020, the university administration chose not to host the Poush Mela (winter fair), breaking away from a 125-year-old tradition. The decision was met with considerable backlash from the students.
In August of last year, the V-C made a statement where he called Rabindranath Tagore, who founded the university in 1921, an “outsider” in Santiniketan, which was again received poorly.
Further, in December, 2020, the V-C wrote to the state government naming Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in a list of people he accused of “illegally occupying university land.”
These unpopular moves, among others, also came with allegations that the V-C was trying to “saffronise” the university, which the administration had to deny when filing the writ petition.