“The Man is nothing, work is everything. Submit your thesis and go” Delhi HC to Umar Khalid

The Delhi High Court yesterday asked the counsel appearing for Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid to submit his client’s PhD thesis to the University on his behalf. This, after it was claimed that the JNU administration had refused to accept it in spite of the High Court’s direction..Advocate Jawahar Raja, appearing on behalf of Umar Khalid, explained to the Court that on the evening of July 23, Khalid’s thesis was not accepted by the JNU administration. Khalid was unable to obtain the requisite signatures on a ‘no-dues’ form which was to be submitted along with it..On the other hand, Advocate Ginni Rautray, appearing for the JNU administration, claimed that Khalid and two other persons made a “ruckus” in the Registrar’s office after Khalid was asked to wait for some time to get the signatures on the no-dues form..She also produced CCTV footage to substantiate her allegation..The Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul then asked the counsel for Khalid to go to the University and submit his client’s thesis..“Why don’t you do it on his behalf? There is no time for ‘he says, she says’. Go there and get the requisite signatures..The Man is nothing, work is everything. Submit your thesis and go”, Justice Mridul said while remarking that the litigation should not become adversarial between the University and its students due to personal differences..Justice Mridul, however, refused to pass any formal direction with respect to the submission of the PhD thesis, as the same was allowed by the Court on July 23. Nonetheless, he asked the parties to “conduct themselves with decency”..In 2016, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, and several other JNU students shot to infamy after participating in an event organized to allegedly commemorate Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.