A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to 14 students of Jawaharlal Nehru University who were arrested a day earlier after they tried to march to the Union Ministry of Education, reported Hindustan Times.

The students had planned a march to the ministry to demand that Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit resign for her allegedly casteist remarks, The Hindu reported.

More than 50 students had reportedly been detained. Among those arrested were three office bearers of the JNU Students Association – President Aditi Mishra, Vice President Gopika and Joint Secretary Danis – and a former union president, Nitish Kumar.

The students are seeking Pandit’s resignation for saying in an interview to The Sunday Guardian that progress for Dalits was not possible “by being permanently a victim of playing the victim card”.

On Thursday, the protesters also questioned the rustication of five JNU students’ union office-bearers earlier this month for allegedly damaging surveillance equipment at the Ambedkar Library, The Indian Express reported.

The demonstrators also demanded a Rohith Act to prevent caste-based discrimination on campuses.

The clashes took place between the protesting students and the police during the march.

While the police alleged that they were assaulted by the demonstrators, the students accused the authorities of using excessive force against them, PTI reported.

The police filed a first information report under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to voluntarily obstructing a public servant, voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from performing their duty and assault or use of criminal force to prevent a public servant from carrying out official work.

The students also alleged that several of them were injured because of excessive force used against them, PTI reported.

A video by the Students Federation of India, the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), showed security personnel clashing with protesters and dragging some of them away.

The police said that the students had given a call for a “Long March” from the JNU campus to the education ministry, PTI reported. It said that the university administration had told the protesters that permission had not been given for demonstrations outside the campus, and had urged them to stay within the institute’s premises.

The police alleged that despite this, about 400 to 500 students gathered on campus and started the march. The protesters moved out of the main gate around 3.20 pm and tried to go to the ministry, PTI reported.

The police stopped the demonstrators at the North Gate of the campus and then pushed them inside the university premises.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association said it strongly condemned the use of force against the students and demanded that those detained be immediately released, The Indian Express reported.

The association alleged that female students were among those injured and that “even the laws prohibiting male policemen from acting against women were brazenly flouted”. It also said that it was concerned about the whereabouts of those detained.

“There are several women among them and they have been taken to unconfirmed locations that are far away from the campus,” the teachers’ association said, according to The Indian Express.

On the other hand, the administration of the university said it was “deplorable” that a “woman OBC vice chancellor was attacked on false allegations, only to divert from the issue of violence and vandalism of public property”.