Patiala law varsity shuts down amid escalating protests

Punjab's Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL) has been closed indefinitely as protests against its vice-chancellor Professor Jai S. Singh intensified on the third consecutive day.

The protests erupted following allegations that the vice-chancellor had violated the privacy of female students at the university hostel and made derogatory remarks about them.

According to the protesting students, Singh conducted an unannounced inspection of the girls’ hostel, during which he reportedly made inappropriate comments about the students' attire and questioned their academic choices.

Outraged by the incident, students launched a sit-in protest outside the vice-chancellor’s residence, demanding his resignation. A number of them spent the night at the protest site, refusing to leave until their demands were addressed.

With talks between students and the university administration failing to yield any resolution, the authorities on Monday, 23 September, ordered the closure of the institution until further notice. Security personnel were deployed to block the main gates of the campus, preventing any outsiders from entering the premises.

The students have escalated their protest against the VC. In a letter addressed to the chancellor of RGNUL, the chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, as well as the University Grants Commission (UGC), the National Commission for Women (NCW) and the Chief Justice of India, they detailed the vice-chancellor’s conduct, which they claim was not only invasive but also derogatory.

The protests were further fuelled by the resignation of three members of a grievance panel that was constituted to address student concerns, indicating a deepening crisis at the institution.

Meanwhile, Punjab government has sought report from the registrar of the university. Punjab education minister Harjot Singh Bains announced that "justice will be done".

The university was ordered to close until further notice, following an administrative directive issued on Monday.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spoke up for the protesting students at the institution named after her father, the late former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and said:

As calls for intervention from educational and legal bodies grow louder, the situation at RGNUL has garnered attention, raising questions about institutional governance and student rights across campuses nationwide.