The Supreme Court Monday asked the Jawaharlal Nehru University, its students union and the organisation Youth for Equality to file affidavits stating their respective positions on holding elections to the varsity’s student body.
The court said that “this is a matter of holding JNUSU (Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union) elections. The elections to JNUSU could not be kept pending indefinitely. The matter is pending before the constitution bench and its resolution may take some time”.
The apex court bench of Justice A.K. Ganguly and Justice J.S. Khehar asked all the parties to file short affidavits after the JNU told the court that it had no objection to the suggestion by court-appointed lawyer Gopal Subramanium on the students’ union election.
The court asked all the parties to file short affidavit stating their stand on JNUSU elections within a week by December 5, 2011 and matter would be listed on December 8, 2011. The last election to JNUSU was held on 2008.
The judges said this after, to its suggestion that all the parties to the dispute should sit together and come to some understanding, counsel Sanjay Parikh said that there were difficulties on finding common ground between the JNUSU and the Youth for Equality.
The court was told that former chief election commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh’s recommendations on student polls insist on voters’ attendance, age limit of 28 years, clean image and restriction on spending during elections, including use of campaign material.
Parikh, who appeared for the JNUSU, told the court that there was nothing like attendance in the JNU thus this requirement of Lyngdoh recommendation could not be insisted upon. He told the court that even the pattern of semester system was different in the JNU.
Subramanium has suggested some relaxations in his report by which the upper age limit could be relaxed to 30 years with liberty to have photocopy of campaign material in JNU students’ union election.
Parikh told the court that as a temporary measure the JNUSU was willing to go along with Subramanium’s suggestion and pleaded for the vacation of 2006 stay on the holding of elections.
