Jamia Millia Islamia has rusticated one student, suspended two others and imposed a one-year campus ban on all three after they joined an indefinite hunger strike demanding the restoration of the university’s students’ union, according to orders issued by the administration on Friday.
Ebin Basil, an LLB student, was rusticated for one year with immediate effect. The two suspended students are Jasim Khan, a postgraduate student in International Studies at Jamia’s India-Arab Cultural Centre, and Rehaan Haider, an MA Social Work student. The orders also bar all three from entering the campus for one year.
The university accused Basil of participating in an “unauthorised sit-in” at Ghalib Lawn and obstructing staff during the installation of CCTV cameras on October 15. The administration alleged that members of the gathering pulled a CCTV camera wire, leaving the system non-functional. It also referred to an earlier protest on September 11, alleging that Basil and other students confronted members of the proctorial team and circulated videos containing “misleading accounts” of the incident.
Five students, including the three against whom action was taken, began the hunger strike on October 12. Their demand was the restoration of Jamia’s students’ union, which has not held elections since 2006. The union was dissolved during the tenure of former Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan.
Student organisations at the university alleged in a joint statement on Saturday that “more than 100” security guards entered the protest site and “manhandled” the students on hunger strike. The allegation was made after the administration issued the punitive orders. The supplied report did not include a separate response from the university to the allegation.
The action followed a meeting between Vice-Chancellor Mazhar Asif, Registrar Md. Mahtab Alam Rizvi and elected office-bearers of subject associations from the university’s departments and centres. The meeting lasted more than six hours. In a statement issued on October 16, the university said the discussion gave students a forum to raise grievances and suggest measures to address them.
A university official told The Indian Express that the administration had no “in principle objection” to restoring the students’ union, but said a formal request would first have to be considered by a committee. The official said the committee would need to assess safeguards against incidents of violence before any decision was taken.
The administration has described subject associations as an established channel for student representation across Jamia’s 44 departments and 30 centres. Their elected office-bearers can raise department-level concerns with faculty members and the administration, the official said.
The official also cited alleged incidents of violence and clashes involving students and teachers as factors that had shaped the university’s position on restoring a university-wide union. The official referred to proceedings before the Delhi High Court in 2022 and said they had not resulted in a direction to Jamia to restore the union. The administration’s next step, according to the statement cited in the report, would depend on a formal request and the committee’s assessment.
