DU Students & Teachers Briefly Detained for Protesting OBE

The protesters were briefly detained due to prohibitory orders issued in the city under section 144.

(Photo: The Quint)

Around eight students and professors were briefly detained on Monday, 22 June, after they staged a protest outside Delhi University’s Faculty of Arts over the varsity’s decision to hold Online Book Examinations (OBEs) for final-year students, police said.

Speaking to The Quint, the SHO of Maurice Nagar Police Stations said:

“They were detained as protest are banned under prohibitory orders that have been issued. They were detained briefly and then let off.”

Rajeev Shah, SHO, Maurice Nagar

Prasenjeet Kumar, president of Left-affiliated All India Students' Association (AISA) told NDTV that the protesting students and teachers were briefly detained and later released after they signed an undertaking saying that they will not violate prohibitory orders imposed in the city under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Despite massive outrage from students and professors, Delhi University has decided to conduct open book examinations for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students from 1 July, 2020. Under the OBE system, students are required to download question papers from DU’s portal and then either upload or email pictures of their answer scripts to the portal/respective department.