Shivangi Prakash –
Published on: August 16, 2021 12:59 IST
The Delhi High Court has given the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association and others till September 17 to react to the University’s and Delhi Government’s claims that the Covid care centre has been set up on campus.
The petitioners, however, rejected the notion, arguing before Justice Rekha Palli that the situation on the ground was drastically different.
The Court ordered the Petitioners to file their answer within two weeks, noting that the progress report filed on behalf of the University and the Delhi Government was not on record.
Meanwhile, JNU has been requested to submit its response after any objections have been addressed.
The order states as follows: “Status report stated to have been filed by the respondents is not on record. Let the same be placed on record after removing objections, if any.
“Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that though the respondents claim that the COVID-Centre in the JNU Campus has been made operational, the position on the ground is strikingly different. He, therefore, prays for and is granted two weeks’ time to file a response to the status report purported to have been filed by the respondents.”
The Court was hearing a writ petition filed by JNU’s Students Union and Teachers Union, as well as two professors who teach at the university, seeking various directions from the Respondents, including a directive to establish COVID care facilities on campus, as well as a COVID response team and certain Oxygen facilities on campus.
The petitioners claimed that once the second wave of the COVID-19 epidemic broke out in the second week of April, they submitted many letters to the Respondent University’s Registrar, the Vice-Chancellor of JNU, and the ADM/SDM of the affected area, requesting quick intervention.
However, there was no response from any of the said authorities, and on any of the concerns.
The petition was submitted as a result of the Petitioners’ concerns.
The Court had urged the University and the Delhi Government to file a new status report on the progress made in this respect during the previous hearing in May.
As COVID instances continue to mount, the Court has already chastised the JNU administration for failing to respond with “swiftness and alacrity.”
Click here to Read/Download the Order
Also Read: JNU to file status report on students plea seeking in-campus COVID care facility
