The Jawharlal Nehru University administration has blocked the registration of a number of students who were involved in the controversial event held in the campus on Afzal Guru’s death anniversary, for the next semester.
The list of 21 students includes JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who were arrested under sedition charges over the event and later released on bail.
The circular bearing the names of the students carried a noting by the JNU registrar Pramod Kumar. It read:
The registration of the following students should be blocked till further notice.
Although the university authorities were tight-lipped about the development, the affected students protested the move terming it a violation of the court order.
A student said the online system which generated their registration folio informed the students in concern that they were blocked as they had not paid fines imposed by the administration.
The Joint Secretary of JNUSU, Saurabh Sharma, whose registration has also been blocked said:
The JNU administration has blocked registration of 21 students for the next semester. The charge against me is that I stopped those who raised anti-national slogans on the campus.
An enquiry initiated by the JNU administration had indicted 21 people, including two academics from outside the varsity.
Umar, Anirban, and another student Mujeeb, were rusticated in April, while others were expelled from their hostels or fined.
This was followed by a fortnight -long hunger strike which ended with the Delhi High Court asking the JNU vice-chancellor Jagadesh Kumar to decide on the students’ appeals.
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