‘Humiliating’: Allahabad High Court sets aside placard punishment handed to Noida varsity student

A Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court has set aside a controversial direction issued by a single-Judge Bench mandating a Noida university student to stand at the campus gate for 30 days carrying a placard declaring, “I will never misbehave with any girl”.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Kshitij Shailendra set aside the direction while disposing of a petition filed by the student, calling it “unjustified” and “humiliating” and saying it could cast a “permanent scar” on his character.

The student was rusticated by the Noida International University in March 2023, following allegations that he misbehaved with women students from another institution.

The student challenged the rustication in the High Court, and on October 29, 2025, a single-Judge Bench of Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery set aside the rustication order but imposed a series of conditions for his reinstatement.

Among them was a direction which required the student to stand on the university gate from 8:45 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. for 30 consecutive days, starting November 3, 2025, holding a placard reading, “I will never misbehave with any girl”.

The university was directed to rusticate the student again in case of non-compliance.

The student’s counsel argued before the division bench that the punishment was “excessively humiliating” and would leave a “perpetual, damaging impact” on his future.

In its order dated February 4, the Division Bench said, “We are firmly of the opinion that the nature of the direction is not justified under any circumstances. A direction of such nature is not only humiliating but would also cast a permanent scar on the character of the appellant, which, in the circumstances of the case, is not called for.”