By Sparsh Upadhyay
The Chhattisgarh High Court last week refused to quash a criminal case against a professor working at Guru Ghasidas Central University, Bilaspur, for allegedly forcing Hindu students to offer Namaz during an NSS camp in March last year.
A bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal noted that the charge-sheet reveals prima facie evidence against him, which warrants trial. It added that there is no conclusive proof at this stage that the proceedings were instituted with ulterior motives.
Briefly put, as per the prosecution’s case, on March 30, 2025, on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, 4 Muslim students were called upon to offer Namaz and the other students were allegedly directed to join them without their consent and were compelled to participate.
Allegedly, when certain students raised their objections, they were threatened with cancellation of their certificates and were subjected to intimidation. Based on their complaint, the police implicated the accused-applicant (Professor Dilip Jha), the Project Coordinator of the said camp, along with other faculty members and individuals.
An FIR was lodged under Sections 196(1)(b), 197(1) (b) (c), 299, 302,190 BNSS and in May 2025, a chargesheet was filed, upon which cognizance was taken by the trial court in October 2025.
This story was originally published in livelaw.in. Read the full story here.