ABVP stir against Christ University promotion policy in Ghaziabad enters Day 2

On Saturday, the protesters raised slogans and burnt an effigy outside the campus amid police deployment. Officers said the students and ABVP members, who claimed to be representing the affected students’ families, were dispersed after some time. There was no violent clash, and nobody was injured.

Policy at the centre of row

Around 13 students of the School of Law’s BA LLB programme at the Ghaziabad campus face a delay in promotion after completing their third year as they have not cleared backlogs from the first or second year.

While the university had revised its promotion policy for other courses in line with the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP), the School of Law’s policy was unchanged since it falls under the ambit of Bar Council of India regulations, the administration said.

Under this policy, according to the officials, students are required to “successfully complete” all courses from the first year to be promoted to the third year, and all courses of the first and second years to be promoted to the fourth year.

For promotion to subsequent semesters, the policy mandates that students must have been cleared in at least 50% of the total number of courses, including practical courses, from the cumulative semesters of the previous academic years, unless otherwise specified under programme regulations.

The revision made by the university on March 25 withdrew the earlier restrictions on promoting third-year UG students with first-year backlogs, while retaining the other promotion requirements. Law students, however, were excluded from the revision as it applied only to UG programmes covered under the NEP.

Prof Akhilesh Tiwari, in-charge of administration at the Ghaziabad campus and an MBA faculty member, told The Indian Express that the issue affected students across multiple campuses and therefore could not be resolved through a campus-specific decision.

“The university has six campuses. Around 13 students face backlogs after finishing third year here, while in other campuses the number is higher: Bangalore has roughly 23, and two other campuses too have such students. There cannot be individual site-level decision that can be taken as a uniform action would be required across all these campuses.”

Tiwari said students had been given time to clear their backlogs and that the university had received undertaking letters from them stating that they were aware of the promotion policy.

Attendance shortage and backlogs

Tanishq Shishodia, ABVP’s Ghaziabad media coordinator, said attendance shortage was among the reasons behind student backlogs. “Detention is a regular issue on this campus. They take hefty fines for attendance shortages and allow students to appear for examinations, but for those who aren’t able to pay those who suffer and are not promoted,” he claimed.

He said some students were being affected by the Promotion Policy despite having only one or two backlogs. “There is a student who had only one backlog in the first year and is now also being detained. Many students have one or two backlogs because they missed passing by a very small margin,” he said, adding, “Parents are desperate and have been travelling back-and-forth for the past two months. We came to know about the issue five or six days ago, when parents approached us and said that nothing was happening on the matter,” Shishodia said.

Anishka Joshi, one of the four affected students who was protesting in front of the campus, said the policy had effectively extended her five-year law programme by another year. “Pursuing law itself is a five-year process, which this has made into a six-year strenuous task. When my father raised the issue with the administration, members responded by making what I felt were casual remarks about suicide,” she alleged.

Another student from the 2023 batch, who was also present at the protest on Saturday, said medical reasons had prevented them from appearing for three examinations in the third and fourth semesters. The student also alleged that they were denied a scribe for one examination.

The student also questioned the application of the policy to law students, arguing that legal education operates outside the NEP framework.

Satyam Sahu, a BBA LLB (Honours) student of the 2022 batch, said a medical condition and an attendance shortfall had affected his academic progression. Sahu claimed his attendance stood at 72.77% against the university’s 73 per cent threshold, resulting in his detention.

He said he subsequently had to appear for 13 examinations across the sixth, seventh and eighth semesters within a 24-day period. He also alleged that the compressed examination schedule left little preparation time between examinations, particularly for core law subjects.