The Sikkim High Court on Tuesday ordered a fact-finding inquiry into the failing infrastructure of the Sikkim Government Law College (SGLC), Gangtok. [In Re Dilapidated Condition of Infrastructure of the Sikkim Government Law College, Burtuk, Gangtok]
A Division Bench of Chief Justice A Muhamed Mustaque and Justice Bhaskar Raj Pradhan directed the State government to get the building's structural stability assessed by an engineer by September 29.
The Court also appreciated the student protest that prompted it to take up the matter suo motu.
“We appreciate your protest. People should take up these issues. Good job you have done,” it said.
The suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) follows an August 27 ultimatum by the Students' Representative Council to the Higher Education Department, giving it 14 days to act. After the Department's response fell short of a clear plan, the students began an academic shutdown on September 11. Former students wrote to the Chief Justice the same day, prompting the Court to take up the matter.
A technical assessment by the Department's own Assistant Engineer had in July assessed repair costs at over ₹1.13 crore.
Before the Court today, SGLC students placed photographs showing cracked pillars, seepage, mould and damaged washrooms. They submitted that the pillars' reinforcement rods were exposed, rusted and broken, and warned that continued neglect risked a collapse like the one in Delhi's Satya Niketan.
While the State government submitted that reconstruction had begun, students said that the work was only cosmetic and did not address the faults flagged in the July technical assessment. They sought an independent structural assessment and, if the building was found unsafe, temporary relocation within Gangtok.
The students cited the Bar Council of India's Rules of Legal Education and its Inspection Manual and listed inadequacies across the college: a classroom-sized moot court hall doubling as an auditorium for barely 60 students; an understocked library; no hostel, leaving outstation students to pay upward of ₹10,000 a month for food and lodging; just 3 urinals across both washrooms for over 100 students; and no proper sports facilities or NAAC accreditation.
The Bench noted that SGLC uses barely a tenth of its 2.7-acre campus and said that the photographs revealed a "pathetic condition".
Online classes will continue in the meantime, with two classrooms arranged at the neighbouring District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) for sessions that cannot be held virtually, while the Education Department is to file a time-bound repair plan.
The State government was represented by Addtional Advocate General (AAG) Zangpo Sherpa.
Three SGLC students - Shrijan Pradhan, Bibachana Rai and Tilak Sharma - represented the student body.