Delhi’s JNU bars complaint committee members from contesting student body polls

Several students expressed concern, questioning whether nominations will be cancelled because of this rule

New Delhi

The JNU student body polls are scheduled for November 4. (HT Archive)

Hours after the window for filing nominations for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) elections closed on Monday, the university administration put up a notice disallowing members of the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) from contesting the student body polls.

The notice, dated October 24, read, “The student members of ICC shall also not be eligible to contest JNUSU elections…The addendum will come into effect from the date of issue of this notification.”

JNUSU’s incumbent president Nitish Kumar, said, “To be sure, the ICC and JNUSU election is happening simultaneously for the first time; the ICC election had happened for the first time around last October. It is absurd that the notice was uploaded after the nomination window closed but it was conveniently dated October 24 and mentioned that the rule will take effect from the date of issue.”

The JNUSU also approached the university administration on Tuesday to request the withdrawal of the rule.

Kumar said that the administration did not give a definitive answer. “We were told that if enough representation comes to the grievance cell, then they might take a call accordingly. However, the grievance cell is only a recommending body and the ultimate decision will depend on the university administration.”

Several students expressed concern, questioning whether nominations will be cancelled because of this rule.

The university did not respond to HT’s request for a comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, a JNUSU election committee member said that the nominations had already been sent to the university to verify if any of the candidates have an ongoing proctorial inquiry against them, in which case their nomination might be cancelled.

The list of valid nominations was expected to be released by the election committee following the university’s verification on Tuesday. However, the list was not available until late evening.

The window for withdrawal of nominations will be open from 10am to 1pm on Wednesday, following which the final list of candidates is expected to be released at 2pm on Wednesday.

The polling is set to take place on November 4 and results are scheduled to be released on November 6.