Refusing to accept the hike in hostel fees by the Jawahar Lal Nehru University administration, the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) on Sunday said it will approach the Delhi High Court on January 20 to seek a direction for quashing the new hostel manual which has provisions for fee hike. The petition shall also seek registration at “old rates without late fines”, they said.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the JNUSU said it will file the plea on Monday against the Inter-Hall Administration manual which, it claimed, was passed “illegally” in October without taking the feedback of the Union.

The JNUSU, which has been on strike on the issue for close to three months, urged the remaining students to boycott of registration.

Early this month, the university had witnessed tussle between student groups over the issue of registration. Amid the stir, masked men had gone on a rampage on January 5 in the campus assaulting students and teachers and storming hostels, drawing widespread outrage.

The JNUSU also appealed to students to boycott exams and classes till they get “buffer time” to complete the academic backlog of the Monsoon Semester 2019. “Furthermore, taking exams and/or classes at this juncture will only create more chaos and ruckus and lead to another bifurcation in the student community that has been resolutely and unitedly fighting tooth and nail against this draconian VC and his political masters,” the JNUSU said.

They also demanded that the JNU administration should “annul and completely quash all punitive actions on students who have been struggling against the exorbitant fee hike”.

According to the agitating students, they were not invited to the meeting where the IHA Manual was passed, which according to them has provisions for hostel fee hike and no reservation policy for students from marginalised sections for getting hostel accommodation.

The university had offered a partial rollback of fee hike by offering relaxation for students belonging to below poverty line (BPL) category in November. When the agitation by students refused to end, the administration had formed a high-level committee to discuss the revised hostel manual and hostel charges.        

The committee had recommended that the utility and service charge be reduced from Rs 2,000 per month to Rs 1,000 a month for all students.

The Human Resource Development Ministry had also intervened and held negotiations with the administration and students. It had said that the UGC will take care of the service and utility charges.