Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) Sonepat has dropped most financial penalties it could levy on students and ended the disciplinary practice of “gating” or restraining students’ exits from campus, as the Haryana law school has been attempting to balance security concerns with the freedom of its students.
Several months ago the administration attracted the ire of a group of students who had sent a petition requesting its faculty body to intervene in the administration’s current, allegedly heavy-handed security measures, including searches of students and heavy fines for violations.
Fines on students for various violations, published in the student handbook, had included Rs 5,000 for getting caught with cigarettes, while alcohol possession carried Rs 10,000 and refusing to obey guards could attract a Rs 5,000 penalty.
However, OP Jindal Global University founding vice chancellor and JGLS dean Prof Raj C Kumar said that all of those fines were only ever there as a deterrent and were never levied. “We never enforced or implement them,” he said. “Simply we don’t want people to have impression that they can get away with just paying the fine [for violations].”
And since February 2014, all disciplinary fines on students were therefore abolished except in cases of “damage to physical infrastructure”, which may extend to five times the cost of the property on a first violation.
The punishment of “gating” - putting restrictions on offenders leaving campus for periods ranging from one month to one year – was also abolished in February.
Security detail
Nevertheless, security remains tight on the JGLS campus in Haryana for a variety of reasons.
Faculty sources at the law school confirmed the existence of an elaborate tiered security system that includes body frisks and inspection of the belongings of every person entering campus.
“The check is to a limited extent, a general body search,” explained Kumar, but admitted that a “determined individual” who wants to bring contraband onto campus “cannot be stopped” even with the best security.
Campus security also includes breath analyser tests (a student refusing a test would be a disciplinary offence), campus surveillance by a battery of close to 100 cameras and two guards sitting in a tower to keep an eye on movements throughout campus.
Acts categorised as “acts of indiscipline” at the law school include possession or consumption of alcohol, cigarettes or other intoxicants, keeping pets, ”public display of affection / obscene / lecherous conduct” or “conduct unbecoming of a student, bringing outsiders onto the campus without permission, entering and leaving campus without permissions, and not cooperating with those conducting security checks.
Dark times
Sources said that security checks were uniform for students and faculty, with one explaining that it was also implemented to prevent locals who did not belong to the university entering, having regularly roamed the campus unquestioned until as recently as one year ago.
Clarification: university registrar and professor YSR Murthy said that security guards are under strict instructions that faculty and staff members of the university should not be searched.
Kumar said: “We are a residential university in Sonepat with just outside where the campus is [there being] complete darkness. People have come from across the country, sometimes across the world. Security measures have multiple objectives. When any security causes inconvenience to anybody […] in that context it becomes essential to figure out what is the best way to deal with it.”
A faculty member explained about the need for tight security: “These kids [students] come from a very different background. They actually have no idea of the place they are staying in. Haryana has a very different culture and they are absolutely unaware of the danger in venturing out like they usually would.”
Kumar added: “We have dealt with some responsibility and care. And we don't want to affect the liberal environment that is on campus. We don't want the situation where there is absolutely no checks and balances.”
“Many parents complain that we are too liberal – and students, many feel, we are too harsh on them that we control their movement,” Kumar said, musing that in an open house of parents held by the law school recently, parents were very pleased by the tight security with one expressing how it was “the best thing” that he got a call every time his daughter studying at the law school stepped out of campus.
Strip search
Several students and faculty sources recounted one student account that claimed security guards had carried out a search of a student and his dorm room for drugs, with the student wearing only a towel. Kumar said that security guards could only enter rooms accompanied by a concerned warden and that there “are different narratives” to such events - in this instance, “protocols were followed” and “obviously there was an exaggeration of the person”.
Faculty sources claimed that due to the “extremely privileged” background of students admitted to JGLS, some banned drugs were in use.
Kumar commented: "[Substance abuse] is a universal issue. It is not unique to JGLS. We are fortunate because of the intellectual environment here.”
Frisking students on campus, has not been a unique security measure at Indian law schools: at GNLU Gandhinagar a student filed an FIR against GNLU Gandhinagar director Bimal Patel after a frisk search. And in 2012 NLSIU Bangalore restrained student movement on and off campus after the rape of a student outside campus.
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Please correct this. Only the students are searched. Faculty and staff are not searched.
Having said that, I must add- there have been times when the purpose of the security guards has often shifted more towards apprehending students for the suttas, alcohol and drugs(which is of course RAMPANT, but I mean, where is it not?). The line is crossed in the ways written in the article by the administrative staff. Students are also subjected to Disciplinary Committee's (DC's) which several claim are arbitrary. There might be some truth to the statement. I was luckily apprehended for cigarettes when the fine was only 500 bucks. I would have been shitting bricks, had it been 5k then. Slowly we started seeing greater monetary penalties and parents being informed (in my time, mine weren't. I was a 20 year old individual, it would be humiliating to get hauled up in front of your parents for a pack of cigs). Rest assured, senior students are left alone, except for the regular offenders. Senior students also learn how to circumvent and sneak in things. I have left behind a little memento for the admin- a collection of packets of various contraband. Lol. Fact of the matter is, the higher administrative officials need to make sure of a way to control and check the arbitrariness meted out to students by security heads and some wardens. In the cited story about the student in a towel, his room was searched, and they had a tip off about a stash of hash. they didn't find it, and realized that the guy may have stuffed it on him in person. They asked him to take his pants off saying- "we are all men, we have what you have". Such arbitrariness is mostly by lower ranked admin officials. Besides, the DC procedure needs to be transparent and uniform.
So much for having a university modelled on 'foreign law schools'. I really hope that CLAT takers still have time to reconsider their choice of going to this jail. Though, except top few national law schools and few private colleges, the situation is not much better.
- based on the strict security measures? That's very sound reasoning. Clearly you must be from a National Law University. And no doubt you must be having Professors and Research Associates from all over the world who taught you to think on those lines.
We wouldn't deny that the NLU students are smart and everything (and not all of them think like you). However, we all know about the state of NLU administrations. We know about the state of your faculty, or the infrastructure for that matter.
Just because O.P. Jindal University has a strict security set up does not mean it is not going to go places and wouldn't hold us back from performing well. If you know even 10% about this University, you wouldn't have made that ignorant statement. So kindly refrain from making such preposterous remarks about ANY university solely based on how they deal with the security issues (especially based in a State like Haryana).
P.S.: Yes the students who study there pay a lot. Yes they are all rich. Yes they have contacts too. Deal with it. The fact that they are filthy rich and have classic taste and come from really-well-to-do families DOES NOT mean they are not smart. Deal with that too.
1. Yes, I am from NUJS and I do have decent faculty. Yes, we only have an ex partner of AMSS, Senior Associate of AZB and Senior Associate of Luthra, two Oxford returnees and one Yale lawyer teaching in current semester, but I don't think it is remotely relevant to what I pointed out.
2. Maybe I have always been a little too concerned about freedom, and coming from Law School where freedom is given in maximum possible way, I overanalyse the importance that it should be given. However, it is sad that a university which talks about bringing concept of foreign law schools is actually having cctv cameras and random raids in college.
3. As far as my logical reasoning is concerned, I think its still better than your chancellor who says that substance abuse is common and still goes on to conduct random raids as per the article. If what is given in the article is wrong, you problem lies with LI and not me.
4. Why will I have problem with how much you can pay or what your fee is? I never said that only rich or anything to that effect. If you see again, I said clat takers, which means that I believe that a lot of people who are being offered national law school might go to JGLS.
Its cool that you are spewing venom, but at least don't be so sceptic about your own university.
I reiterate, you cannot regard a University farce solely based on how it deals with it's security when it is situated in Sonepat, Haryana. The curriculum is largely based on the Ivy and Oxford format but I won't go into details; the University comprises of FIVE colleges and not just a law school; this is to ensure interdisciplinary interaction. Keeping that in mind, there will always be some loopholes (which are glaring in some top NLUs). As for the faculty, Jindal beats some of the top schools. Ref: www.jgls.edu.in/faculty-directory.
In response to, "I really hope that CLAT takers still have time to reconsider their choice of going to this jail." - One must decide which University they want to attend based on ALL the parameters and not just security policy of a University.
In my opinion, if you are from NUJS, my heart goes out to you; but that's just my opinion.
Oh and the PS was mentioned because everyone seems to use that argument when they have no arguments left. So before somebody could bring that up..
I apologise if it sounded like spewing venom, I can treat you to candies too if you don't put such preposterous comments and propagate ignorance. As far as my "skepticism" is concerned, I won't stop questioning anything unless I get my answers, even if its my own University; but well that's how I am programmed to think.
Love.
Rather than monetary penalties , students shoukd be steered through community work, remedial seminars etc.
For if the school cannot maintain the dignity of students who are adults how does it expected them to take forth our constitutional rights and values.
It's only after visiting JGLS I realised how precious a liberal democracy is where nobody is suspiciously watching you along with the treat of a hostel room 'inspection'.
Students smoke and drink in campuses across the world. JGLS has better security than Pakistan's airport.
So much for 'Rule of Law' and 'Liberty' and all those concepts.
WHAT DOES THIS SENTENCE EVEN MEAN?
Is there substance abuse in JGLS because they are fortunate of the intellectual environment there?
Jindal law school should make their admission procedure tougher and revert to their earlier number of seats and do not make the law school open to all who can afford such a huge fees.
Just by allowing strip searches,the lost glory(if at all they had!)cannot be reversed.
1. The streets outside are unlit. We often visit the nearby chowk etc. (women do too). The kind of protectionist attitude that the University adopts is not very helpful. Instead of having the mindset that the streets are unlit therefore, students should stay in and stay safe, the University should use its tremendous influence to get the road outside the University lit. Mr. Jindal was an MP from Kurukshetra for all of my Law School life, surely this was something that would not have been an issue.
2. More transparency and less arbitrariness in "raids", DC's etc. I agree with one of the comments about the lower ranked admin officials not following protocol. Protocols are not really implemented the way Prof. CRK claims they are. Protocols if followed however, would safeguard student interests.
I would also like to add that the VC and the administration are generally cooperative and the VC for one is very approachable. He is not bureaucratic and that is a plus.
Needless to say, I was glad I had the security (except for the times when the security became restrictive rather than for protection, but these were not regular instances) provided.
- Batch of 2014.
Please ask Prof. C. Raj Kumar. They are fortunate to have a great intellectual environment there as well as weed.
All the best.
PS: Jindal is not under CLAT.
This is as per the college brochure.
How authentic is this info?
The same information was given to me by their Director of Admissions.
Moreover, even throwing a party off-campus resulted in the students involved being punished and threatened with suspension.
Now that's much worse than JGLS
Well, just to put things in perspective(and with no intent at scare mongering),the district of Sonepat happens to have the highest crime rate in Haryana.
Might I add that the article has several factual errors? The way in which article is written makes the place sound draconian. Most of the time a balance is maintained. There are very few lapses in protocol and that is because some of the admin staff is daft,too conservative or push their personal agenda.please note that the University is off NH1 which is once of the most dangerous highways in India. Crime rates in Narela,Sonipat,Jagdishpur and Katherine-all adjoining areas are skyrocketing high. Everyone has a gun here. No
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