DU elections ‘corrupting’ students, says HC in defacement case

New Delhi
The Delhi high court on Wednesday asked the Delhi University (DU) to take “stern action” against the widespread defacement of property by candidates contesting in the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections by cancelling or deferring the polls till the defaced walls are repainted and restored, underlining that the same “involved laundering of money and corruption by the students” and was “worse than general elections”.
Expressing dismay over the candidates spending crores of rupees, a bench of chief justice designate Manmohan and justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the university’s vice-chancellor to hold a meeting with Delhi Police, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), saying that polls are a “festival of democracy” and not a “festival of laundering money.”
Terming the issue “serious” and a “failure of the education system”, the court said that DU needed to come out with a heavy hand so that people could get lessons regarding their money being wasted.
The DUSU polls are scheduled to be held on September 27. However, the counsel for DU told the court that a decision on the polls would be taken by Thursday. The court duly deferred the case to Thursday.
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Calling DU a place of learning, the bench said that using money in the elections was corrupting students “right at the inception.”
“You might as well defer the elections till everything gets cleaned up, you disqualify them, ask for new nominations to be filed or third, you allow the election on the date fixed but don’t allow the result of the elections till everything gets cleaned up. You have options with you. This sort of defacement will be done by someone who is illiterate. I think this is a failure of our education system. I think you will have to come out with a heavy hand,” the bench said to advocate Rupal Mohinder, who appeared for DU.
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“You either cancel the elections, these people have spent a lot of money. You tell them, first clean it up, it must be repainted, restored, then you allow the elections to take place or you allow the elections to take place. Mr Rupal, this is worse than general elections. I think it’s time for the vice-chancellor to make a decision. If he has to allow the elections, he will allow the elections. You enforce your order,” the bench said.
The bench said, “It must be a few crores which is being spent, it is not only in lakhs. They (candidates) have so much money, power in the elections no. What is the use of having the elections? It’s a festival of democracy, not a festival of laundering of money. This is laundering of money which is taking place over here. This election system is not to corrupt the youth, no. It is absolute corruption of the youth. See, it’s a place of learning. Please take some action so that people can get lessons for their lifetime that this money can go waste.”
The court was responding to an application filed by advocate Prashant Manchanda, seeking action against the prospective candidates of DUSU elections and student political outfits involved in damaging, defacing, soiling or destroying the beauty of public walls. The application was filed in a plea disposed of in 2019, seeking a complete ban on the defacement of public property by DUSU poll candidates.
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On Tuesday, the high court took DU and other authorities to task for their failure to act against the contesting candidates for defacing public property, and asked DU to issue disqualification notices and also recover the damages caused.
On Wednesday, DU’s counsel submitted that on September 22, it issued notice to all 21 contesting candidates to remove banners and posters bearing names and ballot numbers within 24 hours of the receipt of the notice. He said that DU on Tuesday again issued a notice directing them off/remove any campaign material latest by 5pm, warning of disqualification in case of non-compliance. He added that DU asked them to submit a compliance report by Wednesday.
The counsel also informed the court that DU issued a show cause notice to 14 candidates on Wednesday after they failed to submit the affidavit, asking why their candidature should not be cancelled. On instructions of the election officer, the counsel urged the court to adjourn the matter for Thursday, saying that DU was planning to take a decision on the elections by then.
The counsel for MCD submitted that the civic body, between September 13 and 25, removed four truckloads of material, including around 16,000 boards, 17,000 hoardings and 200,000 posters.
Accordingly, the court adjourned the matter for Thursday.