Student went to court,so Jamia certificate says he is litigatious

“This is to certify that Rahman is litigatious and argumentative in his nature,as per the information and records available in this office… As an three year-undergraduate student,he has done nothing in the interest of the university and he is not an active participant in the campus life,” stated Rahman’s character certificate dated March 22.

Incidentally,the rationale behind calling him “litigatious” could be his petition pending before the Delhi High Court. In his PIL,Rahman has sought a direction to the university administration to conduct polls to the students’ union,which remains dissolved since 2006.

Close on the heels of JNU students testing the political waters in their student election following the Supreme Court nod,a bench of Justices S K Kaul and Rajiv Shakdher had in February directed the university to file a detailed affidavit,incorporating its reasons why the election to the students’ union cannot be held.

On Wednesday,Rahman’s counsel Sitab Ali Chaudhary not only argued against the stance of the JMI on not holding polls but also adduced before the Bench his character certificate,issued by the head of the Political Science department.

“This is unjust and grossly unfair to a student,who has been the topper of his department for the last two years and has won several prizes in intra-college and inter-college competitions. How can he be described like this if not but for prejudice and bias since he has moved the court against the university,” contended Chaudhary.

The bench said: “This is not appropriate. It appears that such a certificate is issued only because he has filed a PIL in the court. One must not be harassed on this count. We would want the university to look into it and issue him a fresh certificate accordingly,” Justice Kaul told the university’s counsel.

Jamia’s counsel Atyab Siddiq assured the court that he will take up the issue with the Vice-Chancellor to do the needful.

On the question of conducting students’ election,the university cited several untoward incidents in the past to underline that academic discipline shall be prejudiced with the holding of the election and claimed that existing system of forming subject associations for every department was god enough.

Chaudhary opposed this and said that Jamia students could not be deprived of democratic rights under these pretexts.

After hearing their arguments,the court ordered Jamia to form a committee to look into the issue.