Allahabad University has ordered students, who could not leave their hostel seats due to the pandemic and lockdown, to vacate or face forced eviction.
Advocate Satyam Singh Rajput, a practicing advocate of the Supreme Court, has written an open letter to the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court seeking a stay on the arbitrary notification of Allahabad University, dated July 8, asking inmates of university/trust hostels to vacate the hostels with immediate effect. The notice said that if they failed to vacate, forced eviction will take place.
Advocate Satyam has informed the Chief Justice that most of the students who are able to go to their native places have already left the hostel and only those students who unable to go to their native places due to lack of public conveyance or due to their critical economic condition are lawfully staying inside the hostels. He has further stated that the notification of Allahabad University is per se “arbitrary, capricious, unethical and unwarranted.”
He has further stated that if the administration wants to vacate the hostels, the said administration must provide the travelling expenses to them or the students might start demonstrations which might increase the cases of COVID19.
He further states that the Universities are for the welfare of students and it is the duty of the university administration to provide the best facilities to its students and to look after their well-being. However, the university administration, by insisting upon the forceful eviction of the students, is infringing the right to life enshrined under article 21 of constitution.
Advocate Satyam has further requested the Chief Justice to take suo motu cognizance of the case in the interest of the students.
India Legal Bureau