The Supreme Court on Monday declined to intervene to push the Union government for an amicable settlement with students of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, to end their strike in protest against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan, actor-turned-politician, as its Chairman.
J.P. Dhanda, counsel of the petitioner, Vineet Dhanda, submitted before a Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu, that an impossible situation would arise if students started demanding that only the best in their professions head educational institutions.
“If students of various law colleges go on strikes with a demand to appoint topmost legal luminaries like Harish Salve, F.S. Nariman, Dushyant Dave or many other legal luminaries of the profession of law to be appointed principals or directors, then it will be next to impossible to run the law colleges in the country, and likewise, if every topmost or renowned person is demanded to be appointed director or principal of an institution, then educational institutions of our country will have to be shut down,” the petition said.
The strike, which had a “negative” influence on students across the country, should not be allowed to go on, it said.
The government should negotiate as the students were being dragged into “unnecessary politics by various political parties”.
Students plan fastFTII students said at a press conference in Pune on Monday that they would go on a hunger strike if the Centre failed to resolve their strike. On Sunday, the Pune Police issued notice to Abhijit Das, a contract faculty member from Assam, who began a fast on the campus seeking “immediate resolution” of the impasse.
(With additional reporting by Shuomojit Banerjee)