HC turns down PIL seeking change of IIT-Kgp entry curbs
Times of India | 8 November 2024
Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Thursday turned down a public interest litigation (PIL) praying for rescinding a 2020 notification by the IIT Kharagpur (KGP) imposing restrictions on the entry and exit of outsiders. A resident of the adjoining Prembazar locality, who has a business on the campus, moved the high court.
Counsel for the IIT Kharagpur submitted that four of the total five gates of the institute remained open while the Prembazar gate had been closed for security reasons. The counsel submitted that the notification was issued in view of the security concerns of the 22,000 students, professors and staffers who reside on the institute.
A division bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya declined to pass orders to change the IIT notification.
"IIT Kharagpur is an institute of national importance. This court is not willing to take up security issues of the IIT," the Chief Justice said.
The Chief Justice, while hearing the petition, also referred to the security upgrade on the IIT Madras campus where private vehicles other than those having gate pass were asked to park at the IIT gate before entering the campus.
When the counsel for the petitioner cited that there was no boundary wall around the IIT-Kharagpur campus in 1951 and there was no restriction even after the boundary wall was constructed in 2004, the Chief Justice observed: "Times have changed. Ask him (businessman) to shift his business outside the campus."