Two NLU Jodhpur students, who were expelled from the law school for one year by its anti-ragging cell in July, saw their expulsion orders set aside by the university’s chancellor, Rajasthan high court chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog, as first reported by Bar & Bench.

The two students had appealed to the Rajasthan high court after they did not get a favourable result from their requested review of the cell’s order.

Justice Nandrajog in his capacity as the university’s chancellor set aside the order against them on the ground that other students had allegedly been guilty of graver harassment during the alleged ragging incident as described in the victim’s testimony, yet had faced less stringent punishments than the petitioners.

Both had moved the university administration on 1 September for a review of the anti-ragging cell

Justice Nandrajog said in his order that the complainant - the alleged victim of ragging who had since left NLU Jodhpur on account of the prevalence of a “culture of ragging” at the law school - had alleged in his statement before the anti-ragging cell that two other senior students involved in the incident had a far graver role to play in the “intense” ragging faced.

The anti-ragging cell, for no explained reasons, had not ordered expulsion of the other accused students, unlike the two students, observed Nandrajog.

The alleged incident of ragging, as per the victim’s recorded statements, amounted to sexual abuse and harassment. Six students were found guilty by the anti-ragging cell, including the two petitioners, who were the only ones to be given expulsion orders.

The others were only fined and suspended.