Order reserved on maintainability of a plea relating to DUSU

The Delhi High Court today reserved its order on maintainability of a plea of a student body that the allotment of ballot numbers in alphabetical order, during the Delhi University's Students' Union (DUSU) election, results in "unfair advantage" to some.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said it will pass the order on the plea filed by All India Students Union (AISA) which has sought that ballot numbers to candidates be given by draw of lots.
During the day's brief proceedings, AISA claimed that some candidates add the letter 'A' a multiple number of times before their names in order to get the first ballot number and added that after the election they change their name back to what it was.

To this, the bench queried from the Delhi University whether change of name in such a manner at the time of election was permissible.
In its response, the varsity said that change of name is allowed but not merely for the purpose of the election for the students union.
The court on August 29 while refusing to stay DUSU election had agreed to hear the plea of the student body against the Chief Election Officer of DU in which AISA has alleged that candidates, whose names appeared at the top of the list under the current system of allotment of ballot numbers in alphabetical order, were getting "unfair advantage" in the election.

AISA has said "the allotment of a ballot number determines the position of a particular candidate on the electronic voting machine".
The petition has said, "Candidates whose names appear first in the list of candidates on the EVM stand a higher chance of winning as there exists a significant number of voters who, being either unsure of whom they wish to vote for or being unaware of the relative merits or demerits of the various candidates, vote for the candidate whose name appears on the top of the list by default."
The student body also said, "Many of the voters are interested only in the college election and are disinterested in the university-level election (DUSU).