Delhi HC seeks Delhi University’s response on barring students over BBC documentary screening

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today sought response from the University of Delhi within three days on a petition filed by the national secretary of National Students’ Union of India Lokesh Chugh

challenging his debarment on allegations of organising the screening of BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav who heard the case today granted three days' time to the Delhi University to file a counter affidavit. It also granted liberty to Chugh to file his rejoinder,” the Live Law reported. The court will next hear the matter on April 24.

Lokesh Chugh is a PhD research scholar at the Department of Anthropology at the Delhi University. On March 10, DU barred two students from taking exams for a year – Lokesh Chugh and Ravinder Singh, pursuing masters in philosophy at the university. Both the students claimed that they were not present during the screening of the documentary.

DU, in the confidential memoranda issued to them, said that the documentary, India: The Modi Question, is "banned". However, the ministry of the information and broadcasting on January 21 invoked its emergency powers to direct the removal of the BBC documentary links from YouTube and Twitter. The external affairs ministry called the two-part BBC documentary, which claims to have investigated certain aspects of the 2002 Gujarat riots when PM Modi was the chief minister of the state, as a "propaganda piece".

“Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav remarked that the University's order did not reflect application of mind,” the Bar and Bench reported.

In January, after the BBC documentary stirred controversy, 24 students from DU’s Arts faculty were detained for planning the screening of the banned documentary. Multiple protests were organised at different universities and colleges across the country over the screening of BBC documentary.