Allahabad High Court: While hearing a PIL instituted by law students of different universities against the decision of Vice Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University which disallowed access to undergraduate women students to the main library situated in the campus of the University on the ground that it will be “overcrowded”, the division bench of D.Y. Chandrachud C.J. and P.K.S. Baghel J. without giving its final opinion observed that efforts to regulate the problem of overcrowding in a campus library must be done on a gender neutral basis and issued a notice to the Vice Chancellor of the university in that regard to file his reply.
The Court further elaborated that a breach of gender neutrality is against the constitutional norms in relation to the guarantees of equality under Article 14 and of gender identity under COI.
In the instant case, where petitioners are represented by Vishal Kashyap and Smriti Kartikeya and respondents by Ikram Ahmad and Gyan Prakash, the Court asked the statutory authorities to resolve this controversy with due regard to the letter and spirit of constitutional provisions. Deeksha Dwivedi v. Union of India, Decided on 14.11.2014