The Delhi High Court rejected the Students’ Federation of India’s (SFI) plea to contest for the elections, as well as the postponement of the elections, making it impossible for them to contest the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections.
On 4th of September, the DUSU nominations were scheduled. Many political parties, along with their candidates, waited in the restricted Chhatra Marg to file their nominations. Amidst all this, the SFI was allegedly attacked by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) “goons” at gate number four of the Faculty of Arts, North Campus, as said in their official statement which made them miss their deadlines. They even claimed that their nomination form was torn up and they were prevented to file a nomination twice. However, the ABVP denied any such accusation by saying it’s a political move by the SFI, and that they were present nowhere near the scene, as only candidates were allowed inside.
Demanding justice, the SFI filed a complaint at the Maurice Nagar Police Station, and had sent a petition to the Delhi High Court, demanding justice to file nomination later and to postponement the elections.
The party had filed the plea on 6th September, and the students had protested on the previous day about the issue on campus. Activists of the SFI and the All India Student Federation (AISA) were attacked twice by ABVP on the same day, as they say.
“No SFI member was able to file their nominations. However, one AISF member managed to file his nomination,” said Utkarsh, an SFI Delhi State Secretariat member.
The verdict on the case was announced earlier, while the Delhi High Court strongly condemned the violence against the candidates. They had denied the University of Delhi (DU) SFI student activists’ plea to let them file nomination for the just happened DUSU elections. The court also denied their plea to postpone the elections as well.
Tom Pious, a student of the Law Faculty at DU and a core committee member of the SFI Delhi unit said, “The judge condemned such acts of violence inside a university and asked the University to file a report on the same on 17th October. The verdict did not come as a relief to us because the elections were just happening. That’s why we weren’t able to contest the elections this time.”
Justice Sanjeev Sachdev condemned the alleged acts of violence on campus and asked the University to file a report by the next hearing.
This case also raises many questions regarding the tolerance of violence in the DUSU elections and the safety of candidates.
Feature Image Credits: Zee News
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