In a major boost to the student movement pressing for a separate Telangana state, Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday ordered the police forces to leave the Osmania University campus with immediate effect.

Acting on a writ petition filed by four students of the university, the high court restricted the police movement inside the campus. It said the students’ hostels cannot be raided for impromptu inspections. The inspections should take place only if there was any specific request from the university authorities.

The court also felt that that the security arrangements within the university should be done only under the supervision of the police commissioner and no one else should be allowed to interfere in this.

The students in their petition appealed to the high court to order the removal of police camps and barricades in the university. They also sought that only civil police are deployed for maintaining law and order in the university.

The high court order is a direct slap in the face for the police as well as the government who have been strongly defending the police action in the university. As recently as Sunday, Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy went on record, wondering “why would the police enter the campus if there is peace and calm inside?”

Agreed, the students are at times going berserk during their rallies but how does it justify the police brutality that is only reserved for the student unrests and never used against terrorists?!