Two days after Sukh Pal Singh resigned as the vice chancellor of the Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU) in Chhattisgarh, Justice Chandra Bhushan Bajpai, a former judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court, was appointed as the new officiating VC of the university on Wednesday, 3 October.
A university notification said Justice Bajpai was appointed as the new VC by an order of the Chhattisgarh HC Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi and the Chancellor of HNLU.
Justice Bajpai was an additional judge at the Chhattisgarh HC from 2014 to 2016, reported Bar and Bench.
A meeting was held between the new VC and HNLU's Student Bar Association on Wednesday evening, following which the students reportedly appreciated Justice Bajpai's "positive approach".
In a win for the students of HNLU, the previous controversial VC Sukh Pal Singh had resigned on 1 October.
More than 800 students had signed a letter of no-confidence against him, owing to his “style of arbitrary and discriminatory decision making,” reported Live Law. The students had also organised protests and a hunger strike.
In a statement put out on their Facebook page following Singh’s resignation, the students said that they were ending the hunger strike with coconut water, and that a peace march had taken place marking “the end of Singh’s tyranny.”
Former JNU vice president Shehla Rashid and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan were among those applauding the students’ victory.
Students Had Called For an Indefinite Strike
On 27 August, the Chhattisgarh High Court ousted Singh from his post on grounds of irregularities in the procedure of his appointment.
However, the Supreme Court put a stay on the High Court judgment, leading to Singh coming back to the university on 25 September as the vice chancellor.
This prompted massive protests by the students. Among the issues raised by students while calling for his resignation were financial irregularities, lack of action on sexual harassment complaints, no transparency, and arbitrary hiring and firing of faculty.
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