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Journalism of Courage
The Delhi High Court Friday allowed Rocky Tuseed, the NSUI’s presidential candidate, to contest the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) polls. The university’s election committee had earlier cancelled his candidature on “disciplinary grounds”. Calling it a victory of democracy, the NSUI requested the committee to allow Alka to withdraw her nomination. After Tuseed’s candidature was cancelled, the NSUI had named Alka, a second-year student of Shaheed Bhagat Singh (Evening) College, as their back-up candidate for the September 12 polls.
Tuseed had moved the court on Thursday. Passing the interim order, the court posted his main plea, challenging the rejection of his candidature by DU Chief Election Officer (CEO) SB Babber, on September 28. Stating that the university was stigmatising Tuseed by cancelling his nomination, Justice Indermeet Kaur asked how a warning given to a student by a college could be termed disciplinary action.
Underlining Tuseed’s submission that he was warned by the college, the judge said, “By no stretch of imagination can it be called disciplinary action.” The NSUI has now demanded extension of the poll date by four days. “Our candidate has lost two days of campaign time. DU is closed over the weekend and campaigning is to stop at 8.30 am on Monday. This leaves our candidate with no time to campaign and is against the principles of free and fair elections… Therefore, the CEO must extend the campaign time to ensure that our candidate gets a level playing field,” said the NSUI in a statement.
Elated with the order, Tuseed, who has been allotted ballot number 9, said, “I am thankful to the judiciary for allowing me to contest the election and to DU for considering the order.”
