Delhi high court asks JNU if it sought individual expense bills from student leaders before 2018 elections

The Delhi HC was hearing a plea filed by Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, which challenged the varsity’s decision to not notify elected office-bearers and barring them from performing their duties because they did not provide separate bills of their individual poll expenses.

The Delhi high court on Monday sought to know from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) if it had insisted on getting individual poll expense bills from elected student union members in the years before 2018.

The Delhi high court on Monday sought to know from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) if it had insisted on getting individual poll expense bills from elected student union members in the years before 2018. (Picture for representation)

The court was hearing a plea filed by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), which challenged the university’s decision to not notify the elected office-bearers and barring them from performing their duties because they did not provide separate bills of their individual poll expenses.

Justice Yogesh Khanna said JNU should have followed the laid down procedure and the matter should have been first placed before the grievance redressal committee, which would have heard the students and then taken a decision. But instead, the decision was taken by the dean of students.

“How could the dean take a decision? It should have been placed before the grievance redressal committee first,” the court said, adding they (JNU) should have followed the procedure already in place.

“Verify your (JNU) records with regard to situation in previous years and let me know,” the court said.

Appearing for JNU, central government standing counsel Monika Arora told the court that as per the Lyngdoh committee recommendations, poll expenses have to be furnished within 15 days of the results but the JNUSU office-bearers gave a collective bill of 19 persons who had contested under one banner for different posts.

She said separate bills were required to be furnished and despite reminders, the students have not done so.

Countering the submission, senior advocate Akhil Sibal, representing the students, told the court that in elections prior to 2018, individual bills were never sought. He said the Lyngdoh committee recommendations asked only an audited statement of accounts and not individual bills.

Taking note of the submission, the court said, “The Lyngdoh committee recommendations were there earlier also. Why the shift to it this time? What changed now? If you intended to implement the recommendation, you (JNU) should have told them (students) before the elections and not after that. If you do not tell them before the elections, they will go by the past practice.”

The matter would be now heard on March 14.