HC prod on student polls; state government's stand towards elections asked by court
Telegraph | 29 March 2025
A high court division bench on Thursday told the Bengal government to file “within two weeks” an affidavit stating its “clear stand” on how it proposes to conduct students’ union elections in state-aided colleges and universities.
“On date, the rule in vogue is the West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Composition, Functions and Procedure for Election of Students’ Council) Rules, 2017, which was notified on June 7, 2017. In terms of Rule III, there is a mandate that elections to the students’ council shall be conducted regularly once every two years as may be advised by the state government from time to time, and every such elected students’ council shall ordinarily have a tenure of two years unless otherwise directed by the state government. Thus, as long as the mandate and the rule are in vogue, elections are required,” the bench headed by chief justice T.S. Sivagnanam said.
The bench was hearing a PIL filed by a platform called Neglected Students’ Alliance.
On June 6, 2017, the state government published a gazette notification stating polls in colleges and universities would be held every two years.
Apart from a handful of unitary universities, like Jadavpur, Presidency and Rabindra Bharati, campus elections have not been conducted since.
In colleges, there have not been elections since a police officer on duty outside Harimohan Ghose College in Garden Reach was shot dead during a turf war between student groups over the filing of nominations in 2013.
“Thus, considering the fact it has been almost two decades since elections have been conducted, we require a clear stand to be taken by the state government... as to how they propose to proceed and comply with the mandate under the rule, which is a statutory requirement...,” the chief justice said.
“Let such affidavit be filed in two weeks and the copies be served on the learned advocates representing the petitioners. Liberty is granted to file a reply within a week thereafter if they desire so. Give a date after three weeks,” the chief justice said.
Calls and text messages to education minister Bratya Basu seeking a response to the court order went unanswered.
The chief justice said the state government have been issuing periodical notifications “keeping in abeyance all processes related to the students’ union election” in universities and affiliated colleges.
The lawyer representing the state, Sirshanya Banerjee, said the government needed three months so they could incorporate some the recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee that were accepted by the Supreme Court in the rules that had been notified in 2017.