The Delhi High Court has asked Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to permit a PhD scholar and his spouse, who were denied re-entry after they had gone out for field work just before the lockdown in March, to resume their habitation in the hostel for married students.
Justice Najmi Waziri noted that the university’s hostel for married couples is the only home where Deepak Kumar and his spouse had been staying for the past few years.
“Their access to same cannot be denied to them except by due process of law,” the High Court said.
“Simply because they had gone out on some fieldwork, they cannot be denied re-entry. They have no other place to go and the petitioner [Mr. Kumar] is unlikely to get an alternate accommodation in a hurry especially in this trying time,” Justice Waziri said.
“Since the allotment subsists they cannot be shut out. They should not be prevented from living in the allotted accommodation,” the High Court said.
Following this, the varsity reconsidered Mr. Kumar’s plea and allowed him and his spouse a re-entry and resumption of habitation in their allotted university accommodation owing to his “special circumstances”.
JNU said that Mr. Kumar’s case should not be cited as a precedent, as it has been done only in the peculiar facts and circumstances of his case.
Mr. Kumar, in his plea, had stated that he has been residing at the hostel accommodation for married students for the last five years with his wife. He said they got married against the wish of their families and elders in their village — the khap panchayat — and thus, could not go return to their houses.
Just before the nationwide lockdown, Mr. Kumar had gone out for some field work. His spouse had accompanied him. Recently, when they tried to re-enter the university, they were denied entry.