HC stays LU students’ union polls

A student challenged the rule which says that the permissible age limit to contest elections shall be calculated as on the date of nomination. Otherwise, the age as on the date of commencement of academic session is taken into consideration for all purposes, he said

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court today stayed the elections of Lucknow University Students Union (LUSU), which were scheduled for October 15.

A bench comprising Justices Uma Nath Singh and Virendra Kumar Dixit passed the order on a petition of Hemant Singh, a student, who challenged the rule which says that the permissible age limit to contest elections shall be calculated as on the date of nomination.

His counsel Prashant Singh Atal said ordinarily, the age as on the date of commencement of academic session is taken into consideration for all purposes. But, as a result of this rule, the petitioner had become overage to contest the election.

The petitioner sought a direction to Lucknow University to consider his candidature for contesting the students union election by calculating his age as on the date of commencement of academic session.

"Other universities, including Delhi University and Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna University, Dehradun, have considered the age of the candidate as on the beginning of the academic session," Hemant said.

The Lyngodh committee had recommended that elections should be held within 6 to 8 weeks from the date of beginning of the academic session. LU's academic session started on July 16 but the election notification was issued on September 25, nine days after the recommended eight weeks' time. "On September 27, I gave a memorandum to returning officer N K Pandey and others, but no action was taken," said Hemant.

"The notification for election has been issued after eight weeks, and thus, the petitioner has stood disqualified to contest the election only on the ground of being overaged which should ordinarily be calculated as on the date of commencement of academic session," said the bench.

... contd.

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