DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand High Court on Monday quashed the shifting of National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar's campus to Sumari village and directed the state government to find another suitable place to build a permanent campus and begin sessions from July 2021.
The bench observed that the central government's decision to accept land in Sumari, handed over to it by Uttarakhand government, was only to “end the impasse” and thus quashed the move to shift the campus there.
A division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice RC Khulbe, observed in their judgement that the blame for the 'sorry state of affairs' in which NIT Uttarakhand finds itself, must largely be placed on bureaucratic apathy.
They stated: "NIT, Uttarakhand shall ensure that construction activities are undertaken, and are completed at the earliest, and in any event before the commencement of the academic year 2021-22 ie on or before 01st July, 2021."
Abhijay Negi, counsel for the petitioner said, "On behalf of the students we are very grateful to the Honorable Court for sifting out the political agenda and giving primacy to student safety. We just hope that the Union of India and State of Uttarakhand stop meddling with the future of NIT students and act in accordance with the law."
The court also directed to the government to pay Rs 25 lakh compensation apart from medical treatment costs to Neelam Meena, a female student who got injured in a road accident when she was walking towards the temporary campus to attend her classes.
Earlier, in 2018, a PIL was filed by Jasveer Singh, an alumnus of NIT in the Uttarakhand HC requesting an interim campus for the institute, apart from asking the court to order the state government to bear the cost of treatment of a student who met with a similar accident then.
Following which, over 900 students of the institute had returned back to their homes to press for their demand that the institute be shifted from its present “unsafe” location along National Highway 58 to a permanent campus.