Kolkata, March 27 The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the West Bengal government to file an affidavit regarding its plans for pending elections to students' unions at different educational institutions in the state.
The division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chattopadhyay directed the state government to submit the affidavit to the court within the next two weeks.
It said that the state government should mention in detail in the affidavit about the next steps that are being considered by the administration to ensure that such pending elections are held.
The division bench gave the direction to the state government on a public interest litigation (PIL) complaining that elections for students’ unions for a number of educational institutions in the state have been pending for so many years.
The petitioner, Uday Shankar Chattopadhyay, accused the state government of not initiating such elections despite there being legal provisions that elections for students’ unions should be conducted on a regular basis.
However, the state government counsel had argued that the problem of conducting regular elections for students' unions at these universities and their affiliated colleges had surfaced since there are no permanent Vice-Chancellors in several universities in the state, and the affairs are being managed by the acting Vice-Chancellors.
On Thursday, the Chief Justice observed that the state government should take some initiative to ensure that pending elections of students' unions are held to deal with the growing unrest in the students' community over this issue.
Recently, a ruckus broke out at Jadavpur University after state Education Minister Bratya Basu’s vehicle was surrounded in the campus by students protesting over the same issue of pending election for the students' union there.
Two students were severely injured and had to be hospitalised after allegedly being hit by the minister’s vehicle after the driver of the vehicle tried to rush away from the place.
Amid the protests, the Minister received minor injuries and fell ill. He was taken to the state-run S.S.K.M. Medical College and Hospital but discharged later.
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