For protesting against facial recognition, JNU rusticates 5 students for 2 semesters, fines each of them Rs 20K
According to the order against Nitish, a PhD scholar at the Centre for Political Studies, the university found him guilty of destroying the FRT access gates “installed at the cost of about Rs 20 lakh” at the library.
JNU rusticated former JNUSU president Nitish Kumar and four office-bearers for two semesters, barred campus entry and imposed fines over library gate vandalism.
(Facebook/JNU) The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has rusticated its former students’ union president Nitish Kumar and four JNUSU office-bearers for two semesters, barred them from entering the campus, and imposed fines on them for vandalising facial recognition technology (FRT)-based access gates at its Dr B R Ambedkar Central Library during protests held last year.
In a series of orders issued by the Office of the Chief Proctor on Monday, the university concluded that the students were involved in what it described as serious acts of violence, coercion and extensive damage to the university property during the incident on November 21 last year. According to the orders, Nitish and the four others — Gopika Babu, Aditi Mishra, Sunil Yadav and Danish Ali — have been “rusticated for two semesters (Winter and Monsoon Semester 2026)” and “declared out of bounds from the entire JNU campus with immediate effect”. A fine of Rs 20,000 has also been imposed on each of them.
According to the order against Nitish, a PhD scholar at the Centre for Political Studies, the university found him guilty of destroying the FRT access gates “installed at the cost of about Rs 20 lakh” at the library. “Mr. Nitish Kumar cut the wires of the FRT system with scissors brought by these students, proving that the act of vandalism was premeditated,” the order stated, adding that he “forcibly pulled out the cameras and camera stands installed on the machines” and “uprooted the machines by dismantling the panels”. The order also recorded allegations of violence against security staff. Separate orders issued to the JNUSU office-bearers detail their individual roles in the same incident.
The order against Gopika, JNUSU Vice President and a PhD scholar at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, stated that she “vandalised the FRT system” along with Aditi, Sunil, Danish and Nitish. It alleged that she “forcibly pulled out the cameras and camera stands installed on the machines” and later “stood on the dismantled panels and delivered a provocative speech justifying the act of vandalism”.
In JNUSU President Aditi’s case, the university recorded that she “cut the wires of the FRT system with scissors,” and dismantled panels of the machines. ‘
“She did not heed the repeated requests by the security personnel to stop damaging the machines and rather she showed utter disrespect to them,” it added.
Similar orders were issued to General Secretary Sunil, and Joint Secretary Danish.
The orders highlighted multiple violations of Statute 32(5) of the university’s code, including Category III offences covering “all acts of violence and all forms of coercion”, “damaging or defacing, in any form, any property of the University”, and “any other act which may be considered by the Vice-Chancellor or any other competent authority to be an act of violation of discipline and conduct”.
The university said a Proctorial Inquiry Committee was constituted after complaints were received from the Acting Librarian and the Chief Security Officer. The orders stated that show-cause notices were issued, but the committee found the replies were “not satisfactory and insufficient to dislodge the findings arrived at during the inquiry”
The Indian Express reached out to university officials for comment through calls and messages, but did not receive a response.
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