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Journalism of Courage
At JNU, campus protests may have declined but disciplinary penalties have not.
Since 2016, the university has collected over Rs 30 lakh in fines from students, records accessed by The Indian Express show. This marks a shift from the suspensions, rustications and FIRs that defined the tenure of former Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar to a regime of financial penalties that is now the face of discipline on campus under his successor, Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit.
Under Kumar’s five-year tenure (2016-2022), JNU collected Rs 22 lakh in fines (see chart), with the highest annual collection of over Rs 9 lakh recorded in 2018.
Under his successor, the pattern continues. Annual fines have ranged between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh and, midway through her term, the university has already collected over Rs 14 lakh — more than half the total amount imposed and collected during her predecessor’s entire tenure.
The impact of these fines on students is stark when placed in context. For example, the maximum fine of Rs 20,000 is forty-fold the annual fee of about Rs 500 paid by a student pursuing an arts degree in the university. It is imposed for defacement of campus property, colluding in unauthorised entry, acts of violence and all forms of coercion such as gheraos, sit-ins that disrupt administrative functioning.
These fines have now been codified in a new disciplinary framework: Chief Proctor’s Office Manual — the latest crack in the widening rift between the university’s administration and its students.
The manual, which was approved by the JNU executive council in 2023, is a detailed set of rules and penalties governing student behaviour, codifying punishments including fines, suspension, or even expulsion for acts such as staging demonstrations within 100 metres of administrative buildings, holding unauthorised gatherings or events, or protesting near university officials’ residences.
Even informal campus events such as fresher or farewell parties held without official permission can now attract fines of Rs 6,000 or mandatory community service. At the bottom rung is a fine of Rs 500 or JNU community service for smoking in unauthorised locations.
Pandit did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But she had previously defended the move, saying the manual “always existed” and was merely “fine-tuned to make it legally sound”.
But students say the manual formalises what had earlier been informal administrative control.
Nitish Kumar, the outgoing Left-backed JNUSU president, described the manual as “draconian” and sought its “repeal”. “The administration recently fined many activists close to Rs 20,0000 for their protest against a surveillance system in the Central Library. They have made this manual a medium of extortion,” he said.
The ABVP, too, has clashed with Pandit’s administration over this issue. Last year, the RSS-backed outfit’s JNU unit opposed the manual as “dictatorial” and “anti-student.” An ABVP member, requesting anonymity, said: “JNU has always been a place where students could debate and engage freely. But this manual is an assault on that very spirit.”
