The Delhi High Court has instructed Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to offer complimentary hostel accommodation to Sanjeev Kumar Mishra, a visually impaired student, throughout the duration of his master’s degree. Mishra faced eviction from the hostel due to regulations restricting housing for students pursuing a second postgraduate course.
The court has mandated JNU to adhere to this directive within a week, ensuring the provision of all entitled facilities for differently-abled students.
The high court granted approval to a petition filed by 49-year-old Sanjeev Kumar Mishra, who contested his eviction from the hostel based on the argument that existing rules prohibit hostel accommodation for a student enrolled in a second postgraduate course.
The high court declared that the petitioner has a rightful entitlement to free hostel accommodation within the JNU campus, along with all other benefits accorded to differently-abled students under the law and JNU policies. This entitlement extends until the completion of the petitioner’s master’s degree course in Sociology, affirmed the court.
The high court declared that it is truly ironic that JNU attempted to defend its case by highlighting the petitioner’s residential address, which was 21 km away from the JNU campus, despite the fact that the petitioner is a 100 percent visually challenged student. The court remarked that the submission requires no additional commentary.
The court emphasized that JNU failed to present any empirical data suggesting that it would be unreasonable to expect them to provide hostel accommodation to the petitioner. The court announced that a student pursuing a second master’s degree with JNU, after already completing one, has the same entitlement to accommodation as a student joining JNU for the first time.
Advocate Rahul Bajaj, representing the petitioner, argued that this rule cannot be universally applied without considering the specific physical disabilities individual students may have.
The counsel for JNU submitted the refusal of hostel accommodation to the petitioner, following his enrollment in the second master’s degree course, aligned with the guidelines outlined in the JNU Hostel Manual. As per the manual of JNU, students who had completed their qualifying examinations from places outside Delhi and were not residents thereof were not entitled to hostel accommodation if they already held a degree or were pursuing studies at the same level in JNU with hostel accommodation.
The counsel asserted that this exception applied to the petitioner, and consequently, he was not eligible to request hostel accommodation.
