Delhi HC seeks stand of Jawaharlal Nehru University in plea challenging students’ union poll process

Counsel appearing for the university and dean of students informed a single judge bench of Justice Sachin Datta that a reply to the plea shall be filed on or before the next date of hearing, which is March 15.

Elections were last held in 2019.

The plea moved by petitioner – Sakshi a student of BA (Persian) course in the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, states that as per the Lyngdoh Committee recommendation elections should be held between “6-8 weeks of commencement of academic session”; however, in the present case the elections were notified at the “fag end of the academic session” in JNU.

It seeks framing of appropriate university statutes or regulations for conducting JNUSU elections, incorporating the recommendations prescribed in the Lyngdoh Committee.

The plea challenges three notifications – a January 30 notification inviting students of selected organisations for a meeting, a notification of February 16 authorising two students – Aishe Ghosh and Md Danish to conduct the General Body Meetings (GBMs) for formulation of the Election Committee (EC) and a notification of March 6 notifying the list of the EC members for the upcoming elections.

The plea also seeks direction for conducting fresh GBM strictly in accordance with terms of the Lyngdoh Committee Report.

It states that Aishe Ghosh and Md. Danish are “prominent members of a specific political organisation” and their actions during the GBM have raised serious concerns as they have shown a “clear bias” towards candidates “aligned with their ideologies”.