A city civil and sessions court on Tuesday prohibited demonstrations by students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) within 100 metres of the college campus. The students have been protesting against the recent withdrawal of financial aid for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class (OBC) students.
The students have been demanding that the institute give SC/ST and OBC students eligible for the Government of India Post Matric Scholarship a waiver on dining and hostel charges. The protest entered its 119th day on Tuesday.
Advocate Bhavna Mhatre, appearing on behalf of several protesting TISS students, had assured the court on March 27 that their demonstrations would remain peaceful and non-violent.
‘Obstructing work’
However, Advocate V.K. Wasnik, the counsel appearing on behalf of TISS, submitted to the court that the ongoing agitations were actively obstructing the daily activities of faculty and staff members. He claimed that the protesting students had been “holding them hostage” and preventing them from going about their daily activities at the college. He also alleged that they were obstructing the movements of the residents of the campus, which include families of the staff members and schoolgoing children.
C.P. Mohan Kumar, registrar, TISS, has stated in an affidavit that the students demonstrating have blocked the main gate by sleeping on the road leading to the institute. Mr. Kumar said, “The issue of granting the scholarship is purely within the domain of the respective governments. The institute does not have any role whatsoever.”
Students asked to reply
Additional Sessions Judge Girish R. Agrawal, who is presiding over the case, ordered for the demonstrations to not take place within 100 meters of the main gate of the college campus. The students have been granted time until August 23 to file a reply to the suit.
