Delhi HC tells Rohini ashram to drop ‘vishwavidyalaya’ from its name

The Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered a Rohini-based institution, which is being investigated for alleged sexual assault and confinement of girls and women at its ashrams, to immediately remove the word ‘vishwavidyalaya’ from its name, PTI reported.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said the use of the word ‘vishwavidyalaya’, or university, was against the law. It said the ashram was not a university as defined under the University Grants Commission Act and it cannot continue to represent itself as one.

The bench had earlier observed that the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya was neither a registered society, nor a corporate entity. The lawyer representing the ashram had argued that the UGC had no jurisdiction over it as it the institution was “run by god”.

During Thursday’s hearing, the court also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to find ashram’s founder Virender Dev Dixit, who has been absconding since the investigation began, ANI reported. “The writ petition makes serious allegations against Virender Dev Dixit, who is stated to be heading the institution and criminality has been pointed in the functioning of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya,” the bench said.

The bench’s instruction comes even after the CBI, during a hearing on Monday, told the court it had issued a lookout circular against Dixit.

Scores of girls and women were rescued from the ashrams of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya from across Delhi and Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad since December 20, 2017, when the High Court had asked the CBI to inspect the institute’s Rohini premises.

Parents of three girls and the NGO Foundation for Social Empowerment had moved the High Court, claiming that many young women were raped at the ashram and several had committed suicide but no case was ever registered.