Here I present to you a brief timeline of the events that forced the HNLU Vice Chancellor Dr Sukh Pal Singh to resign.
On August 27, our entire batch was giving a standing ovation to one of our teachers, who had won a long-standing legal battle against the VC. Chattisgarh High Court had declared the appointment of Dr Sukh Pal Singh as illegal. The day being the right moment to dissent, all the girls of HNLU defied their in-timings and came out in protest against various issues, ridiculous hostel in-timings being the foremost among them. We sat on protest for five days after which Mr RS Sharma was appointed as our interim VC. From postponing mid semesters to extending our in-timings till 3 am, he changed things in seven days, something which Singh couldn’t do in seven years. The interim VC duly uploaded all the public documents which were till now kept hidden by SPS, and he sanctioned all the moot-funding applications, etc.
Alas, our happy days were short-lived. Singh got a stay order on HC’s judgment from Supreme Court which effectively restored the status quo, and he returned as the Vice Chancellor. We knew that this would destroy all our efforts. Therefore, the Student Bar Association( SBA) held a General Body Meeting on September 25 and called Singh to reply to various allegations against him.
Some of the allegations were:
- Inaction towards complaints of sexual harassment done by the teachers against some students.
- No sign of six research centres that exist on paper and for which the university was receiving funds from the government.
- No reimbursement of moot court funds for which also the university was getting funds.
- No public documents like minutes of meetings of Executive Council or General Council were uploaded.
- The terms of mess contract weren’t being followed.
There were 14 such allegations of corruption, maladministration and inaction towards sexual harassment complaints. (I’ll attach the GBM video.)
In reply to these allegations, all he said was, “ho gaya toh ho gaya. Hota hai kabhi kabhi, “apka kya loss ho gaya ( Whatever done is done. It happens at times and what exactly did students lose?)”, in front of freaking 800 students. His replies were callous, indifferent and disrespectful. Furious at his responses, we resented the no-confidence motion against him signed by 850 students. The same day we declared indefinite strike boycotting all the classes and vivas and the entire academic block.
For seven days, the man didn’t budge. He issued two letters of threat in reply, one of them even threatening to issue sine die and closing down the university. We, of course, weren’t getting scared so easily. Therefore, 25 students of the college, went on a hunger strike on October 1, just one day before Gandhi Jayanti.
Finally, he bowed to our demands at 6:30 pm on the same day. Truth had won, the law had prevailed HNLU was free once again. SPS resigned.
The zeal and the enthusiasm in this fight for our rights of my fellow HNLUites were commendable. They sat 24*7 for one week, without getting weak even for once. I thank all of them for their tremendous efforts which gave us this dawn.
As many as eight teachers came out openly in our support without fearing the consequences of them doing so. Their moral support was what kept us going.
This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the media houses and even political parties, who left behind their political motives and helped us by exerting influence on SPS.
This was a collective effort of every single person, and I congratulate the entire student and legal fraternity for this win of unity, truth, justice, and the rule of law. Truth always wins.
#HNLUAzaadHai.