DU’s Law Faculty dean ends hunger strike, even as students protest

The Dean of Law Faculty on Sunday called off her counter-hunger strike against students, who have been protesting against the ‘mass failure’ in semester exams for the past five days, following doctor’s advice.

The students, who are on a hunger strike, were taken aback on Saturday when the dean, Prof Ved Kumari, announced to shun food and water to convince them to call off their protest. The Dean, who was recovering from chikungunya, was later joined by other faculty members.

Sources said DU officials, including deputy proctor and joint-registrar, have assured them that their demands would be met within a week. “Officials met us and just gave oral assurances that action will be taken at the earliest. But when we asked for it writing, they refused,” said a protesting student.                              

The Faculty of Law has three centres – Law Centre 1, Campus Law Centre and Law Centre 2. In the results of the semester examination conducted in May and June, around 45 per cent of the students had failed in at least one subject. 

They alleged that the high failure rate was because of strict checking system adopted by the institute.