SC junks student’s plea against nomination rejection for JNUSU polls

JNUSU polls: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a student’s plea challenging the rejection of her nomination for contesting the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union elections on April 25.

A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta refused to “interfere with the regulation” which barred candidates above the age of 25 years to contest the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) polls.

The bench, which initially asked the counsel for the student to move the Delhi High Court, subsequently heard and dismissed the plea.

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First year post-graduate student Rithu Anubha C referred to the J M Lyngdoh committee guidelines to claim JNU was under an obligation to conduct student union polls within six to seven weeks of the start of the academic session.

The student’s counsel said had the JNU administration conducted the polls in September, as held usually, she would have been eligible to contest.

The counsel said now that she was little above 25 years, her nomination papers were rejected for no fault of hers.

“The JNUSU elections are held in September every year,” the counsel said.

The bench, however, said, “Many universities did not hold the elections during the COVID-19. Does it mean that the overaged can later seek the right to contest… Dismissed.”

The JNUSU polls are scheduled on April 25 and JNU has received 250 nominations for the post of school councillors and 165 for the four central panel posts of the JNUSU.

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Voting will be conducted in two phases — from 9 am to 1 pm and from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm — with counting set to begin at 9 pm the same day.

The results are expected by April 28.