JNUSU Slams 'Stringent' Conditions Keeping JNU Students in Custody

New Delhi: Fourteen Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students arrested during protests against remarks by vice-chancellor Shantisree Dhulipudi Pandit were granted bail on Friday (February 27), but the stringent conditions for their release have prolonged their incarceration, student groups said. Metropolitan Magistrate Animesh Kumar at the Dwarka Courts ordered the release of the students after their permanent addresses had been "verified".

He rejected the plea on behalf of the students that they would report to the officer investigating their case (IO) every day if released immediately. JNU Students Union (JNUSU) has reacted strongly to the situation, saying in a statement:

Since all the students are originally from out of Delhi, the process of verification itself becomes the process of elongating the imprisonment. Many of the students have also suffered serious injuries along with deteriorating health conditions, moreover the upcoming days come filled with court holidays as well...By giving such stringent bail conditions justice has been turned into its own travesty.

The students had expressed willingness for their permanent addresses to be verified once they had been released on bail. The court's refusal prompted JNUSU to call it "Liberty on Paper, Incarceration in Action" for their fourteen peers.

JNUSU statement stringent bail conditions for 14 students who protested against the Vice-Chancellor and raised other demands on February 27, 2026.

The arrest of the fourteen students during Wednesday's protest follows days of confrontation between students and the JNU administration. The march planned yesterday was over demands to implement a proposed Rohith Act, restore the University Grants Commission's (UGC) equity regulations, reverse funding cuts to universities. They also sought the resignation of Pandit over remarks widely criticised as derogatory and casteist. She had characterised, in a recent interview, Dalit and backward-class assertion for dignity as "playing the victim card".

On the night of February 25, students preparing for the planned 'Long March' to the Ministry of Education said security forces had been position across the university's entry points. By morning, hundreds of personnel – including Delhi Police and Rapid Action Force units – were stationed outside campus gates, and they placed barricades, brought bomb disposal vehicles and sniffer dogs.

Student leaders said police officials warned them not to step outside the university premises. Student organisations proceeded with the protest in the afternoon, but were blocked.

According to the students, police detained participants in their protest march and lathi-charged them. Women students were among those injured, and detainees were taken by police to the Kapashera and Sagarpur police stations.

Student union representatives said protesters were dragged, beaten and not provided immediate medical attention. They alleged plainclothesmen participated in the suppression of their protest as well. Police had sealed campus exits and deployed water cannons and tear gas units before the march had started.

JNU faculty members later condemned the police action, saying the force aimed to prevent students from democratically protesting peacefully.

Earlier in the week, former JNUSU president Dhananjay and Mission Ambedkar founder Suraj Kumar Baudh filed complaints with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes against Dhulipudi for her remarks, the Indian Express had reported on Wednesday, with the former seeking the V-C's removal from her post.

Dhulipudi's “criminal and reprehensible” conduct “prima facie promote[d] feelings of hatred and ill-will against” people from Dalit and other marginalised communities and precipitated a "hostile" environment on campus, where incidents of harassment against Dalit and marginalised students had taken place, Dhananjay said in his complaint according to the Express.

At a "Samta Rally" organised on Sunday against the V-C's remarks and in support of institutional steps to address caste and gender discrimination, Left and other student group members clashed with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh offshoot Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad student body. This set off a chain of events that ended in Wednesday's attempted protest march and the arrests.

For now, the injured students will remain in custody until their permanent addresses are verified.

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