Draft SOP Prepared For Security Arrangements During College Fests: HC Told

The Delhi Police counsel told a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora that as per the draft SOP, student identity cards will be mandatory for entering into campuses.

The bench orally observed if the SOP has been drafted in “joint consultation” with all stakeholders, it can close the matter.

The court said it wanted to conclude this matter and granted time to the counsel for Delhi University and IIT, Delhi to obtain instructions in the case.

It took on record the status report filed by the city police and listed the matter for further hearing on April 22.

The court was hearing a case which it had registered in 2023 on its own following allegations by several female students that they were secretly filmed while changing in an IIT-Delhi washroom for a fashion show during the institute's festival.

The high court had directed the city police to hold a meeting with representatives of Guru Gobind Singh IP University, IIT-Delhi and Delhi University, and come up with a standard operating procedure for making security arrangements during college festivals.

During the hearing on Monday, the Delhi Police’s counsel said as per the draft SOP, the area within a college premises at such events will be under the institution's administration and places outside under the city police.

The counsel submitted before the court that in this case a male staff was assigned the ladies toilet. The lawyer said as per the draft SOP, women staff would be assigned to clean ladies toilets and women security guards would be deployed there.

She said according to the SOP, the Station House Officer of the local police station will be informed 15 days in advance about a proposed festival.

The counsel said the windows of ladies toilets needed to be sealed for privacy and hostel wardens will have to ensure that no alcohol is consumed there.

About 10 students of the Delhi University had alleged that they were secretly filmed while changing in a washroom for a fashion show during IIT-Delhi's Rendezvous festival on October 6, 2023.

The high court had taken cognisance of security breaches at college festivals, particularly in relation to female students, and demanded action by the authorities concerned, observing it has been confronted with several cases of student harassment during such events.

The court had said it was imperative that adequate security measures were put in place to allow students to attend such events without any fear of experiencing such acts of violation.

It had said such “recurrent instances” showed the “lackadaisical approach of authorities organising such festivals in envisaging and enforcing protective mechanisms, aimed at ensuring safety of students participating or attending the event”.

Incidents of violence and molestation of students were reported at a festival at Delhi University's Gargi College in February 2020. Scores of men, many of them drunk, had scaled the walls of the exclusively women's institution and harassed the students.