Delhi University behaving like an ostrich, not focusing on threats to law faculty: High Court

Delhi University is behaving like an ostrich by "sticking its head in the sand" instead of taking action against a law student accused of intimidating teachers on several occasions, the Delhi High Court said on Tuesday.

"There is complete lawlessness and you have stuck your head in the sand like an ostrich," a bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Deepa Sharma told the university. Theyalso saidthat the court "would not permit lawless elements to roam free in the campus". The court was hearing a plea initiated on an alleged assault on the Dean and some professors of DU's Law Faculty by some students last year.

The Delhi Police also felt some heat from the bench which said this was a "law and order situation" and the courts cannot be expected to "police the law faculty" in DU. The court told the agency that it had earlier also observed that "inevitability of punishment would be the only deterrent" against lawless behaviour.

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The remarks from the bench came after the police told the court that the student in question, former DUSU President Satender Awana, continued to intimidate the teaching faculty despite several FIRs against him. In addition to that, two chargesheets against Awana in connection with the incidents of violence against the law faculty members, including Dean Ved Kumari, were also filed.

The police, represented by its standing counsel Rahul Mehra, said that chargesheets were filed on October 17 in the trial court and the next date of hearingwas on January 9, 2018. The bench, thereafter, listed the matter for further hearing on November 15 so that the amicus curiae appointed by it can peruse the chargesheets filed by the police.

Delhi police was also given time to file a status report in the matter.