Hearing on students' council elections in Bengal colleges and universities postponed again

Kolkata, Aug 7 (IANS) A crucial hearing in the Calcutta High Court on the multiple public interest litigations seeking immediate conclusion of pending students’ union council elections in all colleges and universities in West Bengal was postponed on Thursday as the state government counsel and Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee sought additional time to present his argument in the matter.

This is the second time in this month that the hearing in the matter at the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Smita Das De has been postponed.

On August 1, the hearing in the matter was postponed as Kalyan Banerjee did not turn up at the court on that day to argue the case.

The next date of the hearing in the matter has been fixed for August 26. The division bench also directed all parties concerned to appear for the hearing on that day with their points of argument and necessary documents.

On July 17, the Calcutta High Court, while fixing Friday as the date of hearing, directed the state government to ensure the fast completion of pending students’ council elections in all colleges and universities in the state as early as possible by issuing the notification for such elections at the earliest.

On that day, as the state government counsel informed the court that the students’ council elections could not be conducted in some universities because of the absence of full-time Vice-Chancellors there, the division bench observed that elections should be conducted at least in those universities where there are full-time Vice-Chancellors.

The Calcutta High Court, then, also observed that the state government should first issue the notification for conducting students’ council elections, and thereafter, the court would decide on what to do next.

Last month, the Calcutta High Court also directed the state Higher Education Department to ensure that the union rooms, also often referred to as common rooms, in all colleges and universities in the state remain locked till the time the student elections in those institutes are conducted and the results are declared.

That direction was quite significant, considering that the union room or common room at South Calcutta Law College (New Campus) at Kasba in south Kolkata was the scene of the rape of a college student in June.

The investigation revealed that the victim was called to the common room by the three accused, Monojit Mishra, Jaib Ahmed, and Pramit Mukhopadhyay. After some initial conversations there, the victim was dragged to the adjacent guard room, also within the campus, by the three accused and raped.

--IANS

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