New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Tuesday permitted the JNU election committee to declare the results of the students union polls held on September 6. The results were earlier scheduled to be declared on September 8.
Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva also allowed the Jawaharlal Nehru University administration to notify the poll results in accordance with the J M Lyngdoh committee recommendations.
The court had on September 6, directed that the declaration of final results shall be subject to further orders to be passed by it and had restrained the varsity from notifying the election results till September 17.
The Tuesday's order was passed by the court while disposing of two petitions by two students. While one of them alleged that his nominations for polls was illegally rejected for election as councillor of JNUSU, the other said the election committee reduced the number of seats for the post.
The court clarified that declaration and notification of the results will be subject to further orders passed by the Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC), which was directed to entertain and decide the complaints it receives from students, in accordance with the Lyngdoh committee recommendations.
Reacting to the court's order, JNUSU's outgoing President N Balaji said the authorities tried to conquer the university but the students defeated them.
"When the students won, the authorities tried to declare the elections as null and void but in the court today, the students' stand is vindicated and its a victory of democracy," he said.
In the petition filed by student Anshuman Dubey, the grievance was raised that the election committee has reduced the number of seats of the councillor from 55 to 46.
However, advocate Maanav Kumar, appearing for the election committee, placed certain documents before the court showing that at no time the seats were 55. He said last year there were 30 seats and this year they have been increased to 44.
Student Anuj Dwivedi, in his plea, challenged the cancellation of his nomination for the post of councillor.
During the hearing, the judge observed that the Constitution of students union has to be respected but it is not above the Constitution of India.
Central government standing counsel Monika Arora and advocate Kushal Kumar, representing the JNU, said the varsity and GRC have acted strictly in accordance with the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations and the Constitution of students union was amended when the election process was already set in motion which was not allowed.
The polling had taken place on September 6 in two phases and 14 candidates are in fray in the elections.
Aishe Ghosh, a member of Students' Federation of India (SFI), was fielded by the Left unity, an alliance which comprises her outfit besides All India Students' Association (AISA), Students' Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students' Federation (DSF) and All India Students' Federation (AISF).
The Left Unity and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had also fielded candidates for all the posts while the Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India (NSUI) had fielded a candidate for the president's post.
The Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA) had contested for posts of president and general secretary, while the Chhatra Rashtriya Janata Dal, students' wing of the RJD, contested for the posts of president and vice president.
Independent candidate Raghavendra Mishra who dresses up in saffron robes and is called Yogi of JNU had also contested for the post of president.
