IIT Delhi Warns Protesting Students of Action After Midnight Campus March
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi director Rangan Banerjee issued a warning to students on Friday, stating that the institute will take disciplinary action against individuals disrupting campus activities, following a midnight protest march on the campus.
The warning, sent via an email to all students around 5pm on Friday, came after protesting students marched through the campus from 10.30pm to 12.30am on Thursday night. The demonstration was part of ongoing protests following the death of a postgraduate scholar on the institute's premises. Protesters called on faculty members to join them, chanting slogans outside residential quarters.
In his email, Banerjee stated that the situation had escalated when a group of protesters extended their agitation into campus residential zones, staging demonstrations directly in front of faculty housing and using threatening language. He noted that such actions compromised the safety, privacy, and peace of faculty members and their families, including young children and elderly dependents.
The director also detailed the steps being taken by the administration following discussions with student representatives. An external inquiry committee has commenced functioning, financial support for the deceased scholar's family from the benevolent fund has been approved, and a separate voluntary contribution fund has been established. Additionally, an external ombudsperson is scheduled to be appointed next week.
Earlier on Friday, Banerjee acknowledged in a video shared on the institute's official social media handle that existing measures to support students were not sufficient. He called the incident a wake-up call and stated that the administration needed different approaches to rebuild trust, scale up counselling, and work closely with students to improve the system.
Responding to the director's email, a student expressed concern over the threatened repercussions, stating that disciplinary action could bar students from participating in campus placement drives and was intended to quell the protest movement.
IIT Delhi reiterated that it maintains a range of student welfare mechanisms, including 24/7 mental-health services, psychiatric support, emergency intervention systems, and grievance-redressal channels through an ERP-based tracking system, the Board for Student Welfare, and SC/ST and OBC cells.
