Chandigarh
Civil right and human right activists called an emergency meeting in Chandigarh, which was also attended by advocates, teachers, young social activists, writers, film makers and doctors, to extend support to the agitating students of P.U. campus and affiliated colleges from Chandigarh. The meeting went on for three hours and after thread bare discussion it was decided that a committee, namely, Solidarity Committee for P.U. and College Students, Chandigarh, be formed.
As per the decision yesterday, the members of the Solidarity Committee, along with the supporters, today reached in the district court complex where the bail plea was to be heard by the honourable justice Sh J.S. Sidhu. The office bearers of the District Bar Association, along with many senior advocates appeared on behalf of the students. Nearly two dozen advocates, including Ravinder Singh Bassi, President, Neeraj Hans, Gen Secretary, Amar Singh Chahal and N.K. Nanda former President of Bar Association, Adv Tarminder Singh, and Adv T.S. Soodan defended students while praying for the bail. Announcing the judgement, Justice Sidhu, allowed bail to all the 53 arrested students. The members of the Solidarity Committee were busy assisting parents of the arrested students since morning and helped them in preparing the bail papers. Till the filing of this Note the process of submitting bail bond was still on.
It was also decided that if administration fails to perform its duty towards the students the Solidarity Committee would sit on peaceful dharna on the public space within academic campuses. The meeting was presided over by Prof. Manjit Singh. A seven member committee was authorised to carry forward the programme of the Solidarity Committee. It would meet the Administrator and apprise him about the tension prevailing among the student community. On the basis of the facts with the Solidarity Committee it would plead for the unconditional release of all the students arrested so far under various clauses of IPC.
The Committee decided to persuade the Administrator to ask the University to call an emergency meeting of the Syndicate/ Senate and immediately roll back the fee hike before the financial crisis and its solution is taken up afresh. Solidarity Committee would also meet the Vice Chancellor and plead for reviewing the decision of fee hike. It would also request him to tell to the Chandigarh Police not to be vindictive with the students and quash all the FIRs in order to restore peace on the academic campuses.The Committee will mobilise support from the tri-city for the students so that Police or University Administration do not victimise the agitating students.