CCTV on campus invasion of right to privacy: JNU Students Union

New Delhi: The decision to install CCTV cameras on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus has not gone down well with its students union which on Wednesday opposed the move calling it contrary to the democratic ethos of the university.

"The JNU Students Union does not see any necessity or logic in subjecting the whole campus to such kind of surveillance. JNU as a university has been known for preserving the democratic right to privacy along with generally being exceptionally safe and secure," said the students union in a letter to the Vice Chancellor. 

"To install cameras is to ridicule this collective sense of responsibility the students have always felt towards their campus," it added.

The university took to installing cameras on the campus two days back, acting on a Delhi High Court (HC) suggestion, which the court had made during a hearing involving missing student named Najeeb Ahmed. 

Ahmed had gone missing on the intervening night of October 14-15 last year after a scuffle in his hostel with some students, who were members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Party (ABVP).

The JNUSU, however, contended that what the court said was not mandatory and that there was no "unprecedented situation which would call for surveillance".

The varsity had reasoned controlling and tracing of theft and security in hostels behind the move in an earlier missive.