Mumbai: A 24-hour notice of eviction, allegations of caste discrimination and a broken promise. These are elements of a dispute between PhD students and the administration at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, that began a few months ago and came to a head last week.
On Friday, nearly a dozen residential PhD students were caught by surprise after authorities served them eviction notices, asking them to vacate their accommodations within 24 hours.
The notice, which ThePrint has seen, accused the students of, among other things, overstaying their contract with the hostel, and failing to pay the fees for several facilities they had used.
“This is a public university and all students are entitled for allotment of hostel rooms so that there is no hindrance in pursuing their higher education. But you are depriving the needy and deserving students of basic facilities because of your overstay even after five years,” the notice said.
“How do you expect us to vacate the accommodation in just a day, especially during the monsoon? Where will we go? It is a public university, not a private property,” one PhD student told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
The students, who belong to socially and economically backward classes such as Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Nomadic Tribes (NT) and Backward Classes (BC), alleged that the administration served them notices because it was counting their period of stay incorrectly, and that they were also being targeted because of their caste.
In a statement issued Saturday to address, what it called “misconceptions”, the institute refuted the allegations and also took exception to use of the term “eviction” by students.
“All the students who have been sent notices are PhD scholars. The scholars have not been sent ‘eviction’ notices but asked to vacate the hostels as they have been overstaying beyond the allotted five years as per their registration date. In addition, they also have outstanding semester, hostel, and dining hall fees running into lakhs of rupees,” it said, adding that the students had also been sent notices several times in the past.
We request every one of our followers and well-wishers to read the statement posted here. Thank you ! pic.twitter.com/XQfNuQFtIQ
— TISS – Tata Institute of Social Sciences (@TISSpeak) July 31, 2024
“They are depriving many deserving new scholars. The institute is already running into huge deficits with financial liabilities of Rs 18.14 crore due to unpaid fees,” the statement added. To be sure, it did not specify what portion of these were the responsibility of the students it had served notices to.
TISS, one of the oldest institutes in Mumbai, was set up in 1936 and has been deemed a university under the University Grants Commission. Earlier in June, TISS faced backlash for failing to renew the contracts of over 100 teaching/non-teaching staff. It later withdrew the notices it had sent to 55 teaching and 60 non-teaching staff saying their contracts would not be non-renewed, asking them to continue with their work, ThePrint had reported.
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‘Never completed five years of stay’
Normally, a PhD takes around five years to complete, beginning with a proposal, followed by fieldwork, and, then finally, the writing of the thesis. Students can pay to use hostel facilities, like the library, dining halls, and research areas for the period.
Three PhD students ThePrint spoke to had enrolled for the programme in 2019. But within months of them joining the programme, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and as the college was shut in March 2020, they were forced to go back home and only returned physically to the college in 2022.
With delays in completing their fieldwork caused by the pandemic and the time taken by their guides to review the material, most of them are currently in their final stages of writing, they told ThePrint.
“So technically, we never completed our five years of stay. But they have calculated the pandemic years as well when nobody stayed on campus. They are saying it is not in their hands but a higher authority has asked them to,” a second student said.
Students also said that they had been told to vacate the premises of the hostel twice before the Friday notice — in April and in July. Even then, they alleged, the notices had been illegal and they had expressed their difficulties to the Dean.
The students said they had been given oral assurances that they would be allowed to stay until September and most of them had agreed to the time limitation.
The students also claimed that, over the past couple of years, the ideological differences between students and faculty had increased, leading to several altercations.
For instance, in April this year, TISS suspended a student for screening the documentary Ram Ke Naam on 26 January and referred to his role as a “mark of dishonour and protest” against the consecration of the Ram Mandir idol in Ayodhya.
“This notice is also politically motivated to harass us,” said the first scholar quoted earlier.
One of the scholars also said he had received a notice on the outstanding balance on fees, but there was no pending payment from his side. Barring a few exceptions — those facing family issues and other complications — most students had paid their fees, he said.
The students also accused authorities of targeting them over their caste. In one instance, the students said that when they approached a professor about the notice and requested him to let them stay, he allegedly attacked their caste; asking why it was always students from ST, ST and BC that overstayed.
“To this, we told them that most of us are the first generation of our families to have come this far. We do not have the facilities at home as our upper caste counterparts. We will take some more time to grasp and complete our education,” said the second scholar.
The students emphasised that some of those signing the letters are also from backward castes backgrounds like them. “They are just signing it. They have no issues from following the orders,” the first scholar said.
Further, the students also alleged that the notices served to them contained incorrect information such as their batch numbers, roll numbers, and room numbers.
While some of the students have left the campus since Friday to avoid further confrontation, about 7-8 students are still holding on. They have submitted to the professor, as asked, reasons why they should be allowed to stay in writing, including the need for hostel facilities to conduct meetings with their mentors and to access the library.
“They haven’t yet responded. Now, we are just waiting to see what the authorities’ next step is. We haven’t yet thought of any legal route but they have already threatened us with legal consequences. Let us see what the authorities say about our replies,” said one.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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