The Madhya Pradesh High Court today directed the state government to hold student union elections in private colleges as well and issue a notification in this regard by October 30.
A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice V K Shukla gave the directions while hearing a public interest litigation that sought students union elections to be held in private colleges just like in government colleges.
In their PIL, Jabalpur district vice president of the National Students Union of India, Badal Panjwani, and another NSUI office-bearer Rijwan Ali Koty, said the government had issued notification for holding elections on October 12.
"However, the next day, the Madhya Pradesh government issued another notification saying that the polls will be held in government colleges only," the petitioner's counsel Madhur Shukla said.
"Today, the court directed the government to hold the students' union elections in private colleges as per the recommendation of the Lyngdon panel's recommendation," he added.
Following the high court's directions, the state government submitted it will hold elections in private colleges after the polls in government colleges to be held on October 30.
The students body elections in colleges are being held after a gap of six years in Madhya Pradesh, in which the NSUI and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad are trying their luck.
The committee headed by former chief election commissioner J M Lyngdoh had in 2005 recommended a cap of Rs 5,000 on election expenses per candidate besides formulating other rules and regulations for cleaning up campus politics.
In 2006, the Supreme Court had directed that these recommendations be implemented.
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