Prior approval needed for protests, DU reminds students

“Prior intimation of gathering/protest/demonstration anywhere in the university is mandatory. Although protests/demonstrations are the legal right of every individual, yet prior permission from the proctor’s office is mandatory,” she said in a notice Friday.

“It is also directed that the participants shall refrain from using violence and any destruction to public property, failing which the organiser/s will be held responsible for any damage and strict action will be taken,” she added.

As per the notice, organisers are required to furnish the information at least 24 hours in advance. This includes name of the organiser, college or department, contact number, email address and course name.

Apart from this, details of programmes also have to be provided. These include nature of the programme (whether it is a speech, rally, dharna etc), duration, use of logistics, list of speakers and expected number of participants.

Asked why such a notice was put out, Abbi said, “It was already on the website. We just corrected it because nobody was taking permission nor informing. Recently a student said he was on hunger strike from four days and we had no information or knowledge about it. It is for the safety of the students also so that no mischievous element enters in their demonstrations and makes it violent.”

Asked which part of the notice was “corrected” and if any new element was added, she said, “That they should not destroy university or public property.”

Abbi said while there had not been many such cases of violence or destruction of public property recently, “past experiences have made us wiser”.