With the appeal admitted and a hearing fixed for July 28, the authorities cannot proceed with demolition until the commissioner hears the matter
NEW DELHI — The battle to save Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, has moved to the court of the Moradabad Divisional Commissioner, with the university management challenging a sweeping demolition order that seeks to raze 38 of its 40 buildings.
In an order issued on July 15, the Rampur Development Authority (RDA) directed the university to demolish the 38 structures within 15 days, alleging they were built without sanctioned building maps in violation of the Uttar Pradesh Town Planning and Development Act, 1973.
The university has now filed a statutory appeal before Divisional Commissioner Aanjaney Kumar Singh. The appeal was admitted on Monday, though it could not be taken up for immediate hearing as the commissioner was occupied with official duties related to the Kanwar Yatra. The matter has been listed for July 28, a date that effectively stays any coercive action until then.
According to the RDA, its team inspected the Jauhar University campus in Singhan Khera in June this year and asked the university authorities to produce approved building plans for all campus structures.
The authority claims that documents were furnished for only two buildings. After issuing show-cause notices and examining the university’s reply, it concluded that the remaining 38 had come up without mandatory approvals and ordered their demolition.
The university has strongly contested both the finding and the timing.
Its core legal argument is jurisdictional. The management says Singhan Khera village, where the campus is located, was brought under the purview of the RDA only through a notification issued in September 2024. The bulk of the university’s infrastructure, it argues, was completed between 2012 and 2016 and academic operations began nearly a decade ago, long before the RDA could claim regulatory control.
In its appeal, the university has contended that even if irregularities are assumed, the remedy lies in compounding, penalty or post-facto regularisation, not in wiping out a functional university.
‘Illegal and Politically Motivated’
The university administration has termed the notice “illegal, arbitrary and grossly disproportionate.”
Former Rajya Sabha MP Tazeen Fatma, wife of Samajwadi Party veteran Mohammad Azam Khan — the founder and key patron of the university — said the institution was built with the explicit aim of expanding higher education access in educationally backward Rampur. She alleged that the campus has faced relentless administrative action under the BJP government and described the latest notice as politically motivated and designed to divert public attention from other controversies.
The state government has not accepted the charge, maintaining that the RDA action is a routine enforcement drive against unauthorised construction.
Political Fallout and Student Anxiety
The proposed demolition, if carried out, would affect nearly 3,000 students currently enrolled in various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The prospect has triggered sharp political reactions.
Rajya Sabha MP and academic Manoj Kumar Jha has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention. Calling the move disproportionate, Jha argued that alleged building violations in an educational institution should be dealt with through regulatory means — regularisation, fines, revised approvals — rather than bulldozers. Demolishing educational infrastructure, he warned, sets a dangerous precedent.
The Samajwadi Party has escalated its protest. Party leaders in Bareilly submitted a memorandum to the state governor through the district administration demanding immediate withdrawal of the notice. Accusing the BJP government of targeting institutions linked to opposition leaders, the SP has warned of statewide agitation if the university is touched.
On the ground, the campus remains tense. Students have been staging a sit-in protest since the order was issued, holding placards that read “Save Our University” and demanding that the government revoke the notice.
Adding to the uncertainty, the district administration has set up a counselling centre just outside the university gate to “guide” prospective students about admissions. University officials allege this is a deliberate attempt to scare away fresh admissions by creating an impression that the university is about to be shut down.
For now, the university has secured crucial breathing space. With the appeal admitted and the next hearing fixed for July 28, the RDA cannot proceed with demolition until the commissioner hears the matter.
The July 28 hearing will decide two key questions — whether the RDA had jurisdiction over the campus when the buildings were constructed, and whether demolition is a proportionate remedy for alleged planning violations.
Until then, the fate of one of western Uttar Pradesh’s most politically contested private universities hangs in the balance.
