Fellow Students,

The past few years have made patent the existence of flagrant administrative misdemeanors,
opaqueness, and sexism and discrimination occurring across educational institutions. But what
they have also borne testimony to is the fact that students will not bend and acquiesce to the
whims and fancies of the administrations, but will stand up to challenge them with one voice.
On the 13th of March 2019, some students of RGNUL, Punjab protested against the quality of
food served in the Boys Mess. On the 15th of March 2019, the Administration, mischaracterizing
the protest, nitpicked six students, harassing them and violating their fundamental rights,
wrongfully suspended them from the campus entirely – something which is not only an entirely
disproportionate penalty, but also an egregious violation of rights by a University which claims
itself to be an island of legal excellence. Since the evening of March 15th, extending till the
present moment, the Students of RGNUL have been on a peaceful protest asking for the illegal
suspension order to be revoked.
It is imperative to understand that this protest transpired not just because of the immediate issue
at hand, but because of larger looming frustration persisting among the students due to rampant
sexism, opaque and vengeful administration, unavailability of official documents and with no
recourse to addressing these grievances. This unaccountable system was in a large part extant
because of the lack of any student representation which can take up these issues with the
administration. Previous attempts of formulating a student body have been foiled by the
administration and vengeful action has been taken against those leading these attempts. At
around 1 AM, 16th March 2019, the student community of RGNUL formulated the RGNUL
Students Association to organize collectively and to represent the interests of the students before
the administration in a democratic manner. Challenging the administration, this Student
Association submitted a Representation to the authorities which in addition to the appeal for
revocation of the penalty imposed against our six students, highlighted other key issues, viz. lack
of transparency, discriminatory in-timings for girls and consociate rampant sexism by the
Administrative Officer, and misuse of university resources.
This overnight protest has witnessed the administration manifesting its imperturbed behavior
with respect to the issues highlighted by the students. Failing any adequate consideration paid to
the issues during the overnight protest, the Students resorted to peaceful sloganeering which
continued till the early morning of the 16th. At about 8 AM, two Judges of the Punjab and
Haryana High Court addressed the students, and the suspended students were granted back their
hostel and campus privileges pending the inquiry. However, ambiguity persists with respect to
our other demands and to the extent we do not see constructive action on them, we will continue
a silent protest. We submit that though many assurances have been made, we have little faith in
Committees and the like as the same have been formulated in the past to dissuade the students
from protesting but have yielded no results.
As protests in other NLUs have evinced, the student fraternity needs to stand united in support of
movements against dictatorial administration. NLUs, and many other educational institutions are
plagued by similar problems, and it is imperative that in this struggle against injustice in places
where justice dispensation is taught, students stand in solidarity with the protestors, for this is

 fight against a system which has been constructed against us. We beg not for charity, but demand
our legal rights. To that extent, we hope that you stand in solidarity with us. The students of
RGNUL have been out on the campus streets hungry, tired, and sleep deprived and the support of
our fellows means the world to us. Support us, for we stand for principles which are espoused in
our Constitution. Support us because this is a long struggle. But mostly, support us so that we can
finally rid our educational institutions of maladministration and focus on the motive for our
presence in them – quality education.
We request you to reach out to us, share the news of our movement or contribute in any other
way you feel is within you. We hope to succeed in this movement, and we look forward to a
RGNUL without injustices.

Regards,
Students of RGNUL.