IIT Delhi Warns of Disciplinary Action After Midnight Student Protests
IIT Delhi Director Rangan Banerjee sent an email to all students on Friday warning that the institute will take disciplinary action against individuals disrupting campus activities, following a midnight protest by students outside faculty residences.
The warning came after students held an agitation from 10.30pm to 12.30am on Thursday night as part of their ongoing demonstrations following the death of a postgraduate scholar on campus. Protesting students marched through the campus and gathered in front of residential quarters, chanting slogans asking faculty members to come out and show solidarity.
In his email sent around 5pm on Friday, Banerjee stated that the situation had escalated significantly and that demonstrations staged directly in front of faculty housing compromised the safety, privacy, and peace of faculty members and their families. He wrote that the institute would take disciplinary actions against individuals disrupting the peaceful functioning of classes, residential areas, academic, and other activities.
Students expressed concern over the warning, with one student noting that disciplinary action could bar them from campus placement drives and was intended to quell the demonstration.
Alongside the warning, Banerjee outlined measures being undertaken by the administration following discussions with student representatives. An external inquiry committee has commenced functioning, institute support from the benevolent fund has been approved for the deceased student's family, and a separate fund with voluntary contributions from staff, faculty, and students has been established. The director added that an external ombudsperson will be appointed next week.
Earlier on Friday, in a video shared on the institute's official social media channel, Banerjee acknowledged that existing support systems were not enough and called for collaborative approaches to rebuild trust with students, describing the incident as a wake-up call.
IIT Delhi reiterated that it offers round-the-clock mental-health counselling and psychiatric support, as well as academic adjustments made in recent years, including smaller first-year class sizes, reduced weekend examinations, and the removal of the minimum CGPA requirement for obtaining a BTech degree from the 2024-25 academic year. However, students have questioned the effectiveness of these institutional grievance-redressal mechanisms on the ground.
