Plea filed before Delhi High Court against JNU Students Union elections

A plea has been filed before the Delhi High Court challenging the upcoming Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) elections [Sakshi v Jawaharlal Nehru University through its Registrar & Anr]. .Justice Sachin Datta heard the matter on Wednesday and after considering the arguments in brief, asked the counsel representing JNU to obtain instructions in the matter The case will be heard again on March 15, Friday..JNUSU elections are being held after a gap of four years. The voting is scheduled on March 22 and the results will be declared on March 24. The last elections were held in 2019..The plea challenging the election process has been filed by a student, Sakshi of the BA (Persian) course at the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies. She has argued that the elections are being conducted in violation of the Lyngdoh Committee recommendation.The plea said that as per the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations, the students union elections should be held in six to eight weeks of the commencement of the academic session but here the elections are being held at the fag end of the session. "The conduct of the Respondent in notifying the JNUSU Elections 2023-24 at the fag end of the Academic Session is nothing but an eyewash and mockery of democratic process, aimed at pacifying a certain group, and as such serves no purpose," the plea argued. .It challenged the notification dated January 30, 2024 inviting students of select organizations for meeting for conduct of elections as well as a notification of February 16, 2024 authorizing two students -- Aishe Ghosh and Md Danish -- to conduct the General Body Meeting (GBM) and formulation of Election Committee (EC). The plea also seeks quashing of the notification of March 6, 2024 notifying the list of EC members along with Chairperson Election Committee of the Election Commission for the JNUSU elections. .The plea states that the "democratic integrity of the institution has been compromised by the undue influence of certain political entities espousing certain ideologies" and these parties have "manipulated and attempted to rig the election process under the guise of the GBM". It has been alleged that the chairs for the GBM -- Aishe Ghosh and Md Danish -- are prominent members of a specific political organization. "Their actions during the GBM have raised serious concerns as they have shown a clear bias towards candidates aligned with their ideological stance."While Ghosh is is a member of the Students Federation of India (SFI), Danish belongs to All India Students Federation (AISF). Both organisations are associated with the Left parties."The EC members should not be associated/affiliated/linked with any political group/party/organization in any sense. The named EC members who have been elected are directly associated with some political organizations," the plea stressed. .Senior Advocate Sanjay Poddar along with advocates Jiwesh Tiwari and Aditya Kashyap appeared for petitioner Sakshi in the case.