Don’t take action against Umar, Anirban for a week: HC to JNU

New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) JNU was today directed by DelhiHigh Court not to implement for a week the order passed by itsappellate authority holding some students including UmarKhalid and Anirban Bhattacharya guilty of indiscipline inconnection with the controversial February 9 event. The direction came on pleas by Khalid and Bhattacharya,who were penalised along with 19 others, including JawaharlalNehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president KanhaiyaKumar, challenging the findings of the appellate authority. In a related development today, Kanhaiya and seven otherstudents also moved the high court against the order. Theirmatters were mentioned before a bench of justices B D Ahmedand Ashutosh Kumar which fixed the pleas for hearing tomorrow. During the hearing on the petitions filed by Khalid andBhattacharya, their lawyers told Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva thatthe operation of the August 22 order of appellate authorityhas to be stayed as it would come into effect tomorrow. Khalid’s counsel Akhil Sibal said his client has beenrusticated from the university for the monsoon session whichwould end in December this year. Similarly, Bhattacharya’s counsel said his client hasbeen directed to be out of JNU for five years. At the fag end of the hearing, when JNU’s counsel soughttime to file an affidavit on their pleas, the court said, "You(JNU) do not implement the orders (of appellate authority) forthis week." The JNU counsel agreed to it after which the court fixedthe matter for further hearing on September 8. During the hearing, both students alleged that theappellate authority of the JNU Vice Chancellor had not dealtwith the issues raised by them in their appeal against therecommendations of a high level enquiry committee (HLEC) whichwas set up to look into the matter relating to the February 9event in which anti-India slogans were alleged raised insidethe varsity campus. JNU’s counsel countered their claims and said that theauthority had dealt with all issues raised by the twostudents while deciding on their appeals. In May, the high court had put on hold the disciplinaryaction against these students by the varsity till theirappeals were decided by the JNU’s appellate authority. It had also said if the appeals were rejected, then theorder of appellate authority would not be given effect to tilla period of two weeks. PTI ABA PPSARC