Amidst the violent anti-CAA stir that has taken a grip of the entire country, a shameful incident took place yesterday when two judges of the Delhi High Court were heckled by lawyers in the Court. The lawyers had filed petitions seeking judicial probe into the violence at Jamia Milia Islamia University. The two-judge bench of Delhi High Court consisted of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar.
The lawyers had prayed for relief in the form of interim directions for protection of students from coercive police action, including arrest. The High Court bench declined this relief after which lawyers heckled the judges by shouting ‘shame, shame’.
This shameful incident exhibits a deep sense of entitlement within the “student-activists” who look at them as a special class of citizens entitled to extra privileges and an absolutely unrestricted right to free speech and expression as distinguished from the rest of the citizenry.
Ever since the Jamia violence took place, the left-liberals have been consistently coming down on police for reining in the anti-social elements as if the “student-activists” have a right to commit violence and then seek immunity from the law of the land. Left-liberals have been consistently trying to draw attention towards ‘students’ in the police action that followed Jamia violence wherein several vehicles including three DTC buses were torched. They are trying to portray “student-activists” as a special class of citizens whose right to free speech extends to vandalising public property.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had also denied any protection from arrest to those students found to be involved in violence and had also asked the aggrieved parties to move the concerned High Courts falling under the jurisdiction of respective ‘students’. And now even the Delhi High Court has refused any protection to such students against coercive police action, including arrest. This must have come as a huge setback for the “student-activists”. However, the manner in which the lawyers heckled the two judges of the Delhi High Court shows that there is no real realisation of the fact that these ‘students’ are not entitled to any special protection or privileges.
The “student-activists” need to understand the simple fact that their right to freedom of speech and expression does not extend beyond Article 19 (1) (a). Every citizen is entitled to the same level of freedom of speech and expression. There are no special classes with extra freedom in this domain. As such “student freedom” is just a misnomer in the Indian context. Their freedom is not wider than that of any other ordinary citizen of India. The idea of “student freedom” has given the student protesters a false sense of superiority which they must shed immediately because this sense of superiority is extra-constitutional.
The sheer outrage over why the police entered the Jamia Milia Islamia University campus shows that the ‘students’ have been wrongly made to believe that Central Universities are their fiefdoms. The fact remains that the University campuses are also subject to the law of the land like any other part of the territory of India. Neither are the students a separate class vis-a-vis the right to free speech nor are the university campuses their embassies where the law enforcement authorities cannot enter. ‘Students’ are also ordinary citizens after all and it is time they are treated as such.
