Delhi High Court issues notice on a PIL seeking 50% women’s reservation in DUSU polls, while questioning its legal basis and claims linking representation to election violence.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia asked the respondents to file their responses. The matter has been listed for further hearing on November 27, after the upcoming DUSU elections scheduled for September 18.
The PIL, filed by advocate and former DU student Shabana Hussain through advocate Ashu Bidhuri, argues that women constitute approximately 53 per cent of DU’s student population but remain significantly underrepresented in elected student bodies. Between 2013 and 2024, only eight of the 32 elected DUSU representatives were women, while no woman has held the post of DUSU President since 2009. Since the beginning of DUSU elections in 1954, only 10 of 68 presidents have been women.
The petition alleges this disparity partly to the electoral environment surrounding campus politics, citing alleged money and muscle power, violence, intimidation, sexist remarks, cyberbullying and social media trolling as factors that can discourage women from contesting elections.
It further argues that inadequate representation can affect the attention given to issues particularly affecting women students, including sexual harassment, campus safety, hostel facilities, curfew timings and sanitary infrastructure.
During the hearing, however, the Bench questioned the legal basis for granting such reservation. The Court asked the petitioner to identify the statute or provision from which a right to reservation in DUSU elections could be derived. “We are here to protect your rights. We can’t create a right,” the Bench observed.
The Court also questioned the petitioner’s argument that greater representation of women would reduce violence during elections. When the counsel argued that female students “follow the law”, the Bench responded by asking whether the argument implied that women were “less violent”.
The petition also refers to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, which provides for one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies and recommendations of DU’s DUSU Election Reforms Committee for rotational reservation of an office-bearer post.
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Image Credits: The New Indian Express
Bishakha Gogoi