Breaking: Activist Safoora Zargar's admission cancelled by Jamia Millia Islamia

Jamia Millia Islamia has cancelled activist Safoora Zargar's admission into the MPhil/PhD (Sociology) programme. In a notice from the Office of the Dean, the Board of Studies cancelled Zargar's admission based on the report by her supervisor and on the recommendation of the RAC and the DRC. 

In response to the notice, Zargar tweeted that the news had "broken her heart but not her spirit". In February 2020, Zargar, an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protestor, had been arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), after communal clashes in north-east Delhi during the protests claimed the lives of 53 people. Zargar was pregnant at the time. She was granted bail in June 2020. 

Last week, the university told media persons that the cancellation of Zargar's admission had been approved. Zargar had then spoken out on Twitter stating that she has been made to wait for extensions that are easily given to other scholars in the university. “Despite three waves of COVID, a pregnancy, a severe state attack, jail time and severe COVID infections in the family, I completed my fieldwork. I submitted all my progress reports on time. But at the fag end of my thesis, I am being denied submission,” she said in a tweet.

The university cited three reasons for the cancellation of Zargar's admission. While the first reason stated that her progress as reported by her supervisor was unsatisfactory, the second reason stated that she had failed to apply for an extension as a woman scholar before the expiry of the stipulated maximum term. The last reason stated by JMI as the basis for cancellation for her admission was that Zargar had failed to submit her MPhil dissertation within the prescribed term of five semesters and an additional semester allotted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The notice said that this period ended on February 6, 2022.