The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday observed that authorities of the Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri College should formulate policies to prevent the entry of outsiders and former students of the college.
A single bench of Justice Jay Sengupta observed that the alleged threat culture on campus cannot continue and that the entry of ex-students without any valid reason cannot be accepted.
Justice Sengupta said, “I do not want any untoward incident to occur in an educational institution.” The court further observed that those students who have alleged that they have been threatened can file a complaint at the local police station at Chari Market. “The police should take immediate action, and if not, then the court will intervene.”
Traditionally, the Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Day College and Law College, which share a campus, celebrate Saraswati Puja separately within it. However, this year, allegations surfaced that the Day College students forcibly erected a pandal in front of the Law College’s pandal, effectively blocking the latter’s puja celebrations.
In response, Day College representatives denied any involvement, claiming that outsiders were responsible for setting up the pandal. Following a row between two groups of students, a student had moved a petition before the Calcutta High Court seeking its intervention in the matter.
On January 30, the court asked police to remove the makeshift pandal outside the main building of the campus to allow the Law College students to perform Saraswati Puja on the campus on February 2.
The single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta had asked the police commissioner to depute a joint commissioner and deploy armed police personnel to ensure students of both the day and the law colleges could hold their pujas on the campus, and no outsiders were let in.
Meanwhile, students of the Law College alleged that a group led by outsider Mohammed Shabbir Ali and his group have regularly been coming to the college and threatening and harassing the students there.
The State government had filed a report on Wednesday stating that the makeshift pandal had been removed. The HC had ordered the removal of both pandals, to be carried out by police on Saturday, with the entire process being videographed. Following this, the two colleges will hold separate Saraswati Puja celebrations each year.