JNTUH Students Allege Continued Exclusion Despite High Court Relief

Hyderabad: Ten students of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad (JNTUH) alleged that university authorities continue to deny them access to classes and hostel accommodation despite the Telangana High Court suspending the disciplinary circular against them.

In a letter to higher education principal secretary Yogita Rana and the Telangana State Council of Higher Education chairman Prof. V. Balakista Reddy, the students said they had been staying in private hostels for 55 days, paying expenses despite being unable to attend classes.

“We are not in a position to spend thousands of rupees on private accommodation while being kept away from classes,” they said, appealing to the authorities to intervene.

The students said the dispute began when they objected to a fellow student allegedly harassing a woman student.

“As JNTU students, we tried to say that harassing our fellow female students was wrong.

Some people made a small altercation bigger for their own interests and provoked ordinary students, creating a chaotic situation on the university campus,” one of the students told Deccan Chronicle.

They accused the university’s inquiry committee of taking selective action.

According to their version, JNTUH principal Prof. Narasimha Reddy issued orders on October 13 suspending some of them for six and eight months and denying them hostel accommodation.

The students said they had “approached university officials repeatedly but received little help.”

One of the students also alleged that some officials refused to meet them and that the students were mocked when they sought relief.

One exchange, they described, involved the registrar, whom they approached to explain that they had been suspended.

“The registrar said, ‘Great, I am appreciating your principal,” the students alleged.

With two students having missed an examination, they approached the High Court through advocates Revanth Karupothula and Krishna Maragani.

In an interim order in a writ petition, the court suspended the October 13 disciplinary circular insofar as it concerned the 10 petitioners until December 15.

It directed the university to permit them to take their ongoing and remaining semester examinations and arrange another examination for the two students who missed the International Business paper on October 26.

The students said the court questioned the differences in punishment and the inquiry committee’s handling of the incident.

They also alleged that photographs of the students had been displayed at university entrances despite the interim order.

“Students who do not get hostel accommodation are non-hostellers, but how can students be called non-boarders?” they asked, challenging the university’s treatment of them.

They further alleged that they had been threatened for approaching the court and said they had emailed higher education officials seeking intervention.

Asked about the issue, a JNTU official told Deccan Chronicle that the court’s interim relief concerned the examinations and did not specifically direct restoration of hostel accommodation or classroom access.