The Jamia Millia Islamia administration on Friday, February 14, put up lists with details of 17 students allegedly involved in the ongoing protests at the university across the campus. The university also served suspension notices to several students identified in the list.
The move comes in the wake of protests being held in the university since Monday against showcause notices issued to PhD students for holding a demonstration “without permission” in December last year. The protest was intended to mark the anniversary of the Delhi police entering campus in 2020 and assaulting students during the citizenship law protests.
On February 13, at least 14 protesting students were detained by the Delhi police. The university’s chief proctor’s office also issued letters of suspension to several students on February 12 and 13. At least 14 students, whose names appeared in the publicly displayed lists, confirmed to Newslaundry that they had been slapped with suspension notices.
The suspension notice said:
“Whereas on 10th Feb, 2025 you were identified as leading an unruly & rowdy group of individuals to vandalise and deface the university’s property. Furthermore on 11.02.2025, you again participated in an unauthorized and unlawful protest within the JMI Campus, disrupting the normal functioning of the university and creating ruckus inside the campus thereby resulting in gross inconvenience to other students, teachers and employees of the university.”
The lists put up today, meanwhile, contain the personal details – mobile numbers, email addresses, political affiliations – of the suspended students. They went up at multiple spots across the campus.
“The way the administration has publicly displayed our photographs and personal information has posed a threat to our safety. We could even be lynched or killed,” said Jyoti Kumari, a PhD student from the Hindi department who’s named in the list. Jyoti said she received “threatening” phone calls from “unknown persons” to her home after the lists went up.
“It is also a violation of our rights,” she added. “Are personal details given to a university so that it can make them public and compromise on our safety?”
‘Will not apologise in any way’
On December 16, 2024, the Jamia administration had issued showcause notices to PhD students Saurabh Tripathi and Jyoti for holding a protest demonstration in the campus earlier in the day “without permission” from the administration.
Every year on December 15, Jamia students take out a commemoration march against the Delhi police entering the campus and assaulting students in 2020 during the CAA-NRC protests. Saurabh told Newslaundry that the administration allegedly shut down the campus on December 15, 2024 for “repairs.” Some students then took out a march on December 16 and two of them were slapped with showcause notices within a few hours.
Saurabh insisted he sent a “seven-page response” to his showcause notice. He was then told the administration was “not satisfied” and wanted him to appear before a disciplinary committee on February 25.
“We were not told which portion of our response they were dissatisfied with,” he said. “Despite this, we were asked to appear before the disciplinary committee. We discussed this matter with other students and decided not to appear. Such anti-student actions should not be tolerated on campus. This is the reason why instead of appearing before the committee, we chose the path of fast against the arbitrariness of the administration.”
So, on February 10, Saurabh and others held a protest near the university’s main gate. He said they also burned a copy of the notice that directed him to appear before the committee before moving towards the library to sit on an “indefinite strike”. About 25 to 30 students were with him that day, but their numbers grew to around 400 by February 11.
The police took several of the students into custody at about 5 am on February 13.
Umehabbeeba Qaudri, a first-year BA Honors student from Telangana, told Newslaundry she’s among the students who’s been suspended for participating in the protest earlier this week. She said she participated because she’s “in favour of constitutional rights”.
“I felt this decision of the administration was a step towards attacking those rights,” she said in Hindi. “Also, I felt whatever had happened to those students was wrong.”
Umehabbeeba was also detained by the Delhi police on February 13. She told Newslaundry she isn’t part of any student organisation and that she was, as an individual student, merely raising her voice against “injustice”.
On being suspended, Habiba said, “The students of Jamia are followers of Bhagat Singh. We will not bow down against this dictatorship of the administration, nor will we apologise in any way. Suspending us is an attempt to crush our rights and create violence on campus.”
A third student, who did not want to be named, confirmed they had been detained by the police and subsequently suspended. The student was worried about the suspension – they did not expect action beyond the showcause notice – and told Newslaundry the police also telephoned their house.
Newslaundry made several attempts to contact Mohammad Shahid Khan, the chief proctor of Jamia, to ask him about the students being suspended and detained. This report will be updated if he responds.
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