STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY

The recent events that have taken place at Himachal Pradesh National Law University (“HPNLU”) clearly
show that their students face same, if not similar issues that are faced by the students of Rajiv Gandhi National
University of Law (“RGNUL”). We, at RGNUL, can understand the frustration that is faced by the students and
know that the issues raised can never encompass the extent of maladministration that often plagues premier
institutions like ours. This is a problem that is faced with many NLUs, as is evident from the protests against the
administration in several other NLUs including RGNUL.

National Law Universities were envisaged as ‘islands of legal excellence’ to create a generation of ‘social
engineers’ for ‘nation-building’. However, students are overburdened due to the lack of basic necessities like
healthy food and potable water. Their deplorable food has been known to cause serious health issues amongst
the students, such as food poisoning, diarrhoea, nausea, stultification, etc. It should be unconscionable that the
administration can deprive their students with these inalienable rights and expect them to become the legal
luminaries they claim to nurture.

In blatant disregard of unassailable statutory mandate U/s 4(b), RTI Act 2005, the administration of HPNLU has
failed to make public various documents and details pertaining to their functioning. Arbitrariness has swallowed
the institution policy formulation, a vice which judicial intellect has hitherto attempted to curtail. The utilisation
of the students’ hefty annual fees remains undisclosed, and the administration persistently depicts itself to be in
dearth of the finances. Lack of student representation leads to opacity in the working of the administration
which acts as a breeding ground for the abovementioned malpractices, as has been experienced by the students
of RGNUL.

Over the course of little more than a decade, RGNUL students have been raising similar demands against the
administration. After many attempts, the students finally succeeded in ensuring a certain amount of
transparency and getting student voice heard. The entire college united on 15th March to protest over arbitrary
suspension of six students for protesting against the deplorable quality of mess food, then ended up raising
pertinent issues like the lack of a student body, sexism in administration and campus rules and an ex-Jailer who
ran the administration like his personal jail. Although, we have won this battle, the war against arbitrariness,
ineffectiveness, incompetence and internalisation of human rights violations is not won.

RGNUL and HPNLU are headed by Mr and Mrs Jaswal, who have coincidentally nurtured administrations
which can be seen as Kafkaesque replicas. Unlike RGNUL, HPNLU has risen up against the administration at
an early stage. It is always better to have this protest at such nascent stages of an institution rather than more
than a decade down the line. The fight is against red-tapism, arbitrariness, indifference and callousness of the
university administration towards the issues of student interest. We understand how tough it is to unite the entire
college against such an administration despite the cause being right.

Therefore, we stand in complete solidarity with the student body at RGNUL and wholeheartedly support their
courage and decision. We support their sincere efforts to stand up against the regressive behaviour of a despotic
administration.

Students of RGNUL