Can't protest within 50 metres of Visva Bharati: HC

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed that no protests could be held within 50-metre area of the Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan.

Justice Raj Shekhar Mantha, while hearing the plea of the Visva-Bharati University, ordered that the students must end the agitation by 3pm on Friday and move away.

"Visva Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty's movement cannot be stopped and the district police authorities must provide three constables for his security," the court observed.

The order also prohibited the agitating students from conducting protest demonstration, putting up banners, posters, hoardings or using loudspeakers within 25 metres of the V-C's residence or the Central Administrative Building of the university. The protestors may, however, demonstrate peacefully outside 50 metres of those premises.

Demanding the return of three students who had been expelled for three years on August 23 for taking part in a campus protest in January 2020, the students had been continuing a sit-in protest outside the central office and then the residence of the V-C.

On Wednesday, the varsity officials filed a petition in Calcutta High Court alleging police inaction.