The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought Jawaharlal Nehru University's stand on a plea challenging the upcoming students’ union elections.
Justice Sachin Datta asked the JNU, through its registrar and dean of students, to file its reply before March 15.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought Jawaharlal Nehru University's stand on a plea challenging the upcoming students’ union elections.
Justice Sachin Datta asked the JNU, through its registrar and dean of students, to file its reply before March 15.
The high court listed the matter for further hearing on Friday.
While the JNUSU elections are scheduled to be held on March 22, the results will be declared on March 24.
The plea filed by a student of the university claimed that the elections were being held in violation of the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations (LCR).
Petitioner Sakshi submitted that as per one of the recommendations, the elections should be held between 6 and 8 weeks after the commencement of an academic session but the upcoming polls are being conducted at the end of the academic session.
“The conduct of the respondent in notifying the JNUSU Elections 2023-24 at the fag end of the academic session is nothing but an eye wash and mockery of democratic process, aimed at pacifying a certain group, and as such serves no purpose,” the plea said.
It challenged the January 30 notification inviting students of select organisations for a meeting for conducting the elections and another notification of February 16 authorising two students -- Aishe Ghosh and Md Danish -- to conduct the General Body Meeting (GBM) and constitute the Election Committee (EC).
The plea also sought quashing of the March 6 notification containing a list of EC members besides the name of the chairperson of the Election Committee of the Election Commission for the JNUSU polls.
“The appointed chairs for the GBM, namely Aishe Ghosh and Danish, are prominent members of a specific political organisation. Their actions during the GBM have raised serious concerns as they have shown a clear bias towards candidates aligned with their ideological stance,” it claimed.
Ghosh is the current president of the students' union and had contested the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections as a CPI-M candidate.
The petition said the EC members should not be associated with any political group or organisation.
"The democratic integrity of the institution has been compromised by the undue influence of certain political entities espousing certain ideologies. These political parties have manipulated and attempted to rig the election process under the guise of the GBM, with the aim of promoting their own political agenda," it said.
The petition sought a direction from the court for convening a fresh GBM strictly in accordance with the terms as specified in the Lyngdoh Committee Report to ensure the sanctity of the JNUSU elections.
In 2005, the Supreme Court had directed constitution of a committee headed by J M Lyngdoh, a former chief election commissioner of India, to suggest measures to ensure fairness and transparency in holding elections to students’ unions in various universities across the country. The committee had made various recommendations to that effect.
The apex court adopted the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations and made it mandatory for universities to follow them.