Chhattisgarh Chief Justice and Hidayatullah National Law University Chancellor AK Tripathi on Wednesday appointed retired Chhattisgarh High Court Justice Chandra Bhushan Bajpai vice chancellor of the Raipur varsity. Sukh Pal Singh, the former vice chancellor, resigned on Monday after a group of students launched an indefinite hunger strike demanding his resignation.

Bajpai met Student Bar Association president Snehal Ranjan Shukla, vice president Swati Bhargava and other members on Wednesday evening, a statement from the body said. The association said Bajpai assured them of taking decisions in the interest of the students.

The university’s students had protested intermittently since August 27 against hostel curfews and restrictive library timings, alleged sexual harassment by teachers, harassment by hostel wardens and the administration’s mismanagement of state grants. The students said they have lost faith “in the incompetent administration of Dr Sukh Pal Singh and his style of arbitrary and discriminatory decision making”.

In August, the Chhattisgarh High Court had quashed Singh’s extension as the vice chancellor on the ground that the recommendation for his extension was made on a statute that had not come into effect. Singh was reinstated to the post on September 25, a week after the Supreme Court stayed the Chhattisgarh High Court’s order. Soon after, the students began to ask for his resignation and handed over a no-confidence motion to him.

On September 30, Singh claimed that the protest has damaged the image and academic environment of the university “despite the fact that the majority of students are in favour of restoring normalcy”.