“In our discussions today, the students agreed to follow all the rules prescribed by the varsity. Therefore, we have decided to allow students to hold the fest at the open air theatre here,” said Pradip Kumar Ghosh, the Registrar of the university.

This decision, however, came late in the evening as earlier in the day, the authorities had issued a stern statement saying they will not budge under student pressure. Pro Vice-Chancellor of the university, Siddhartha Datta had said: “The students have to abide by some rules and regulations. Till now the students held the fest at the open air theatre. Now, since this is a residential area the students cannot be allowed to use loudspeakers till late in the night.”

The students today staged a demonstration outside the office of the Vice-Chancellor and other officials. Even as the protests were spearheaded by the anti-SFI students union — FETSU and FAS, the decision of the university (to now allow annual fests on campus) had also brought the SFI on a collision course with authorities.

“We insist that the fest be held at the open air theatre,” said Agnishwar Chakraborty, vice-chairman of FESTU.

SFI’s Soumya Bhattacharya added: “We did not have any idea about the decision of the university. Suddenly, we got a notice that we cannot organise the annual fest this year at the open air theatre.”