Manoj Misra, J. - (1.) All these four petitions assail decision of the Senate of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (in short the Institute or IIT, Kanpur) imposing punishment upon the petitioners for their alleged involvement in incidents of ragging which allegedly occurred in the intervening night of 19th and 20th August, 2017 in Hall-II within the campus of the Institute.
(2.) As common questions of fact and law are involved in these four petitions, with the consent of learned counsel for the parties, they are being decided by a common judgment and order.
(3.) Writ C No. 584 of 2018 was the first petition to be filed in which, by order dated 08.01.2018, this Court had required the counsel representing the Institute to file a detailed counter-affidavit disclosing the procedure adopted by the Institute to ascertain the guilt of the petitioners. The court had also required the respondent-Institute to bring on record the nature of the complaints made and the material brought in support thereof with full disclosure of the procedure adopted to deal with such material so as to enable the Court to satisfy itself whether the procedure adopted for imposing punishment upon the petitioners was in conformity with the principles of natural justice.;