SC no to stay on semesters,DU restriction on protests

A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and C K Prasad also refused to stay the DU order restraining lecturers and professors from staging protests or demonstration in the campus against the decision.

“We are not inclined to stay the (university) notification,” the court said. In view of the court’s observation,the agitating teachers who had filed the petition,withdrew their appeal against the High Court order.

Advocates Jayant Bhushan and Tariq Adeeb,appearing for the teachers,termed the DU notification arbitrary and illegal,and said it had been introduced without proper application of mind.

They also questioned DU’s decision to implement the semester system from this academic year through emergency powers vested in the DU Vice-Chancellor.

Bhushan submitted that the system was being introduced despite protests from both the teaching community and the students,as the system has no approval for the proposed new syllabus and curriculum for various subjects.

The bench,however,refused to accept the arguments,allowing the petitioners to withdraw the petition.

Reacting to the court order,Nandini Dutta,a teacher at Miranda House and the first petitioner,said teachers plan to make the special leave petition (SLP) public. “The High Court will decide on the legality of the semester system. Our SLP was on the kind of chaos that the University will get into immediately,” she said.

She added that the July 12 judgment of the High Court may prove to be too late,as the semester system,and its problems,would be in place by then.

Dutta said she would “fight tooth and nail” to prove her case before the High Court. “If the High Court does not appreciate our point of view,we will take the petition to the Supreme Court,” she said.