Student sends legal notice to JNU over row
In response to a showcause notice issued by Jawaharlal Nehru University to him for being guilty of painting a deity in a derogatory manner and publishing an objectionable article, a student has sent a legal notice to the university, asking it to “explain” which part of the article was found objectionable and to which students.
Jitendra Yadav, a Ph.D. student of Centre of Indian Languages and president of All-India Backward Students Forum (AIBSF), was given extended time till Monday to respond to the showcause notice which said that he had been found guilty of releasing an offensive poster depicting a deity in a derogatory manner that led to violent incidents.
The notice sent through Supreme Court lawyer Nitin Meshram said the individual notice sent to Yadav for the poster circulated by his organisation was “non est and unwarranted and therefore vitiated”.
Members of AIBSF and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad had clashed earlier this month over posters that were found hurtful by a section of students. The posters were circulated by AIBSF, reproduced from an article in the Forward Press magazine about the “Dalit viewpoint on Durga-Mahishasura”.
The notice says that Yadav was being harassed, while asserting that AIBSF as a student body representing students from backward classes has constitutional right to propagate its ideology. It also evokes the right to free speech and right to conduct the scrutiny of matters of historical importance including religion and religious affairs subject to reasonable restrictions under Article 19 (2) of the Constitution of India.
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