No regret; no remorse among student leaders, says Delhi HC on violation of rules in DUSU elections

New Delhi, Nov 6 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Thursday remarked that student leaders elected to the Delhi University Students' Union have "no regret and no remorse" for violating guidelines during the recent election and asserted that they cannot take the law into their hands.

The high court said it cannot monitor the day-to-day functioning of the Delhi University and was only concerned with the conduct of the elections.

"We are not sitting here to monitor the day-to-day functioning of Delhi University. Do not enlarge the scope of the petition. We are only concerned with how the elections are conducted. If they are not filing returns, the university will take action. If nobody wants to mend their ways, what can we do?" a bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said.

The court's remarks came after the petitioner's advocate said that the newly elected office bearers of DUSU have failed to file their list of audits and expenditure incurred by them during the elections, which is mandated to be done one week after the election results.

The court was hearing a plea by advocate Prashant Manchanda, who raised concerns over the violation of guidelines and rules to ensure that the DUSU elections were held in an orderly manner.

After examining the photos and videos, the bench had prima facie found several violations during the student campaigns on campus. While polling was held on September 18, the vote counting was done the next day.

The court, which had earlier impleaded as parties all the successful candidates in the matter, on Thursday noted that some of them were not served with the court notice, and one office bearer was personally present before it.

"Why are the respondents not here?" the bench asked, observing that there was "no regret and no remorse" in them.

While interacting with the office bearer who was present in the court, the bench said, "You are taking the law into your own hands. Don't say no. We have read the newspapers. We are not oblivious to what happened. You will take the law into your own hands? You are vulnerable right now. We can countermand your elections for violating the order of this year and the previous year. We don't require proof. We have enough".

It said the students gave an undertaking last year, but violated it flagrantly and questioned their conduct after elections.

The court asked the petitioner to serve a notice to the remaining students and listed the matter for further hearing on January 27.

"We can't shut our eyes. Make all of them understand," it said.

The bench had earlier expressed disappointment and pain over the students' conduct of using luxury cars and JCBs in the DUSU elections and said they have not learnt any lesson from last year's judicial order by which the poll results were withheld owing to nuisance and defacement done to public property.

The court had said that the Delhi University needs to take more steps to ensure that the students' body polls in the capital were held peacefully, without any adverse occurrences, including defacement of public property.

Manchanda's plea sought action against the prospective DUSU candidates and student outfits involved in allegedly damaging, defacing, soiling and destroying public walls. PTI SKV RHL RHL