The students of the Army Institute of Law started a protest against the alleged arbitrary functioning of the college administration on the night of 15th October. More than 300 students in number questioned the authorities over the unreasonable rules in the Code of Conduct introduced in the institution.
The code of conduct has been governing the institute for years now and lists out a number of do’s and don’ts that allegedly regulate and curtail the basic freedom of the students along with leaving enough scope for administration’s ambiguity and discretion.
One of the most problematic aspects of the code of conduct is the lack of a democratically elected student body. The current student body as mentioned by the protestors is “cherry picked” by the authorities and enjoys only a limited set of responsibilities. The students thus feel unheard and are often shooed or dismissed by the administration if they try to complain.
Other problems that students are facing include :
-Inherent lack of an organized disciplinary body
-The appalling conditions of the mess and the criteria which also puts the issue of human health and sanitation in question.
-Unruly behaviour of the warden in the girls hostel and lack of working medical facilities.
-Restricting the students to walk inside the campus after 11 PM even after adequate security and a 9 PM curfew for entry inside the institute.
The aforementioned issues, coupled with poor placements, sub-par quality of the newer faculty, arbitrary disciplinary actions against students, and attempts to throttle every freedom and opinions of the students have culminated in a joint petition prepared by the students of the college which was submitted to the authorities on the 4th of October. Even after 12 days today, no response has been received.
The students have refused to give up and have been sitting on dharna for over 18 hours now. They have even presented a list of their demands to the management which are as follow-
1. A democratically elected student representative body.
2. Justifying the yearly hike in fee.
3. Repealing arbitrary provisions of Code of Conduct.
4. Student feedback while appointing teachers.
5. Periodic feedback of already appointed teachers.
6. Addressing the complaints of the services provided in cafeteria and mess.
7. Inquiry regarding the conduct of the girls’ warden.
8. Clearly defining the composition of Board of Inquiry by making provisions for student representation for offences defined in Code of Conduct.
9. Lifting restrictions on student movement within the campus post 2300 hrs for Male and female students alike.
