New Delhi, 16 September (IANS) Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed Satyavati College of Delhi University to give personal hearing to a student, whose nomination for the post of President of the Students Union was rejected not to meet the 75 percent minimum attendance requirement.
A single judge bench of Justice Mini Pushkarna was hearing a petition filed by a second year B.Com student, challenging the rejection of his nomination on the basis that it failed to meet the need for a minimum 75 percent attendance under the guidelines of the Lingdoh Committee.
The petitioner – Roop Bansal – claimed that his appearance was wrongly calculated and was denied the opportunity to listen by the college. The arguments, attendance registers and WhatsApp logs of online classes filed through advocate Ashu Biduri were not counted by the petitioner. Many classes participating were not counted.
On the other hand, the college administration presented that, according to the duly verified records, the petitioner’s presence was only 65 percent. After considering the parties, Justice Pushkarna said: “It is clear that a student, who does not meet the minimum 75 percent attendance criteria, cannot be allowed to stand for elections.”
However, in view of this, the student was not given a hearing by the Complaint Committee, the Delhi High Court directed the panel to hold a personal hearing at 2:00 pm on the same day to appear to cover the records with the professors of Hindi, English and accounts. Justice Pushkarna ordered, “The record to be submitted by the petitioner before the complaint committee will be duly considered and the presence of the petitioner will again be calculated before the petitioner, during the hearing, to the petitioner.”
In its judgment, the Delhi High Court made it clear that the student could cross the 75 percent limit: “The petitioner needs to meet the minimum requirement of 75 percent presence, the petitioner’s nomination will be accepted and the petitioner will be allowed to contest the election.”
“The petitioner’s appearance is below the minimum 75 percent attendance criteria, the said fact will be communicated to the petitioner. In that incident, unnecessary, petitioner’s nomination will be rejected,” the disposal of the writ petition.
In a concession for the “extraordinary circumstances” of the case, Delhi HC also directed that if the petitioner’s nomination is accepted after investigation, it should be allowed to campaign by 9:00 pm the same evening.
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