Students and teachers of the law and justice department of Jahangirnagar University (JU) have alleged that their academic activities are being hampered due to acute shortage of classrooms. At the time of the establishment of the department in 2011, JU authorities allocated only two classrooms to it on the third floor of the Social Sciences faculty building. Later, two rooms of the Zahir Raihan auditorium were temporarily allocated to the department.

However, the allocated rooms were primarily for the geography and environment department. On July 9, the geography and environment department sent a notice to the law and justice department to vacate Room No. 340. The next day, some members on the staff of the geography department also took the lock and key of the room from the law and justice department.

The law and justice department had to postpone some of its classes due to the incident.

Assistant professor KM Shazzad Mohasin, head of the law and justice department, said: “A total of 27 classes per week were scheduled to be held in Room No. 340 at the Social Sciences Faculty building. If that room is taken, we’ve only three rooms for 400 students in five running batches.”

“We've been facing various problems since the department was set up. New problems are emerging ever day. Our academic activities will be hampered because of shortage of classrooms. Moreover, we're also facing session jam of more than one year. It won’t be possible for us to cope with this if the university authorities delay in allocating us new classrooms,” he added.

“Everything on the campus is controlled by the university authorities. The geography and environment department can’t say that a classroom is its own property. It has treated us unfairly. They should have had a prior discussion with the law and justice department before sending us the notice,” said the dean of the Law and Justice Faculty.

Prof. Shahedur Rashid, head of the geography department, said: “We need more classrooms for our academic activities. We gave a classroom to the law and justice department seven years ago. We didn’t need any extra room back then. But our academic activities have increased over the years. We need additional space now. So, we asked the law and justice department to vacate the classroom.” Meanwhile, students of the law and justice department demanded a quick and permanent solution to the problem. Khan Muntasir Arman, a fourth-year student of the department, said: “We went to the vice-chancellor, Prof. Farzana Islam, and demanded a permanent solution to the problem. We are facing session jam of more than one year. If the problem is not resolved, we’ll have to suffer a lot’.