Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) leader Sunny Chillar sought the Delhi High Court’s decision on holding fresh elections for the Delhi University Student Union polls, two months after the post of President feel vacant after the president, ABVP’s Ankiv Baisoya, was found to have submitted fake documents to get admission last month, Indian Express reported.
The university opposed the decision and said the petition is “not maintainable” as verification of Baisoya’s degree was completed after November 13, as per the report. It added that no fresh elections can be held as the two-month period within which the polls could have been conducted had expired.
The hearing was carried out by Justice Yogesh Khanna.
Chillar had been Basoya’s counterpart in the presidential polls.
In the hearing, DU said that as per the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines, fresh polls can only be held if a post falls vacant within two months of results being declared — which was November 19, IE reported.
According to the report, Chillar, represented by senior advocates P Chidambaram and June Choudhari, argued that once the degree was found to be fake, the nomination becomes void ab initio and the two-month period won’t apply.
He added that DU should have properly scrutinized Baisoya’s certificates during admission to the MA Buddhist Studies course, and while accepting his nomination, the report stated.
Chillar, also represented by V Elanchazhiyan and Jawaid Hussain Khan, submitted that DU is in “collusion with the ABVP and deliberately delayed the decision, as they received information about Baisoya’s degree on October 28, but confirmed it was fake only on November 13”, as per the IE report.
“Baisoya was not a student of DU. He was just an impostor,” Chidambaram argued, and sought fresh polls under an independent election officer or an appropriate authority “of impeccable character and integrity”, the report said.
The hearing is to resume on December 6. The arguments remained inconclusive, the report stated.
