After threats of eviction from hostel, visually-challenged student takes DU to court

On September 21, Edex wrote about a visual challenged student from Delhi University's Dwyer Hall who was ordered to vacate his room on campus for "over-staying". The student, Lovely Kumar Grover filed a petition with the Delhi High Court  since the hostel is refusing to accept a request for an extension.  The Court has issued a notice on the petition and the University has been asked not to take any action against Grover till the next hearing date.

The 26-year-old student's parents passed away when he was younger and since he's has not been able to depend on any other extended family member, he had been reliant on the college hostel for a home. Now as he is currently pursuing his MPhil, he has been living on campus for its duration. Since his thesis submission date has been extended, he requested for one in the hostel too but was rejected. Repeated requests were turning away, interestingly though it seemed to only be happening to Grover. The other students who applied for extension were apparently granted them without any qualms.

With threats to shut him out of his only home, Grover has now resorted to going to court with the matter. Grover approached two of his ex-college mates who are lawyers now to frame the petition. In it he says that he is being discriminated against and his basic fundamental rights are being violated. The petition noted that the threat to evict the petitioner from the hostel room is a gross dereliction of the statutory obligations of the University under The Right of Person with Disabilities Act, 2016. 

The grounds under which the petition was filed is that the notice was issued to the petitioner without giving him a fair hearing and this was a 'flouting' of principles of natural justice are not flouted. Secondly, the petitioner says that the notice failed to disclose cogent reasons for the refusal for an extension. Another point mentioned in the petition is that the administration had "acted arbitrarily and with undue hates in sending the notice to the petitioner".The petition also pointed out that the decision to evict Grover from his hostel room would force him into Delhi's harsh winter streets. 

The court has asked the University to file a response to the petition and the next hearing date has been schedules for November 13.