E-Paper
Tribunal rejects Raghunath?s petition
THE THREE-MEMBER specially constituted tribunal? formed to resolve the issue of Allahabad University (AU) students' union president Ajeet Yadav's election?finally delivered its verdict on the fate of AUU presidency on Sunday. The tribunal comprising KB Srivastava (retd IPS), Farhat Ali (retd IAS) and its new chairman Justice (retd) RB Mehrotra after considering all aspects rejected veteran student leader Raghunath Dwivedi's petition challenging Ajeet's election and informed the AU Vice-Chancellor of their decision.
THE THREE-MEMBER specially constituted tribunal— formed to resolve the issue of Allahabad University (AU) students' union president Ajeet Yadav's election—finally delivered its verdict on the fate of AUU presidency on Sunday.
The tribunal comprising KB Srivastava (retd IPS), Farhat Ali (retd IAS) and its new chairman Justice (retd) RB Mehrotra after considering all aspects rejected veteran student leader Raghunath Dwivedi's petition challenging Ajeet's election and informed the AU Vice-Chancellor of their decision.
Sources said the tribunal maintained that Ajeet Yadav was a student of the varsity at the time of the polls and thus eligible to contest the elections.
The tribunal members are believed to have pointed out that Raghunath Dwivedi did not object to Ajeet's candidature at the right time, that is, during the polls itself and also ruled that BTC is a training course and can not be termed to be a degree thus making the clause of a student not being allowed to pursue two degree courses simultaneously non-applicable in this case.
The tribunal's decision will now be conveyed to the members of the AU Executive Council, varsity's apex decision making body, at their next meeting and finally also pave way for the constitution of the Board of Trustees (BoT), formation of which was held up due to the AUU presidency row.
It is to be recalled that the three members of the tribunal had met on April 18 at first but due to the failure of Ajeet Yadav to bring along his lawyer had decided to meet again on April 22. Lawyers of both the parties had presented their arguments and the tribunal had decided to announce its judgement finally on April 30.
Earlier, the former chairman of the three-member tribunal Justice (retd) Achal Behari Srivastav had resigned suddenly on March 29. The move was believed to have been the result of political pressure being exerted on him with an aim to influence the tribunal's decision.
The resignation, which had come just a day before the tribunal was to give its final verdict, had created a major problem for the AU authorities then.
Raghunath Dwivedi, who had polled the second highest number of votes in the AUSU elections last year, had submitted a memorandum to the varsity administration, challenging the election of Ajit Yadav to the post of AUU president.
He had cited some documents and claimed that Ajit was employed as a teacher at a government school. Dwivedi had claimed that Ajit had even been issued a migration certificate from AU and thus was ineligible to contest the polls.
Following the allegations, the AU Executive Council had decided to form a three-member tribunal to decide on the issue. Justice (rtd) Achal Behari Srivastava was made the chairman and had KB Srivastava and Farhat Ali as its members. The last hearing under Justice (rtd) Achal Behari Srivastava had taken place on March 24 and the decision was reserved. Later, it was said that the tribunal would give its verdict on March 30.
However, on March 29, just a day before the D-day, the chairman of the tribunal had resigned from the post amidst reports of political pressure on him being the reason behind the move.
The resignation had put the AU administration in a spot as even after four months of the AUSU elections, the formation of the Board of Trustees (BoT) still remained pending. The AU Executive Council had instructed the VC to pen the BoT formation letter only after the issue of AUSU presidentship was resolved.
