HC allows NSUI nominee to run for DUSU presidency

The Delhi High Court on Friday allowed NSUI's presidential candidate Rocky Tuseed to contest the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) election scheduled for September 12.

Justice Indermeet Kaur in an interim relief allowed Tuseed to contest the election and posted for September 28, his main petition challenging the rejection of his nomination.

On September 6 the Delhi University's Chief Election Officer (CEO) had rejected the nomination of Congress affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) candidate Tuseed due to a disciplinary case against him.

In support of its decision, the officer had cited an incident of disciplinary action against him at Shivaji College which had proscribed him from entering the college in 2014.

Senior advocate P. Chidambaram, appearing for Tuseed, told the court that CEO rejected his nomination on the basis of an anonymous complaint.

Chidambaram argued: "If there was any disciplinary action against me in the past by the college authorities, I should have been called and heard. They did not give me any hearing. I was only warned and no disciplinary action was taken."

Counsel said Tuseed had contested elections earlier too for the Department of Buddhist Studies' students union and that time there was no mention about this disciplinary action.

Senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, appearing for DU and the CEO office, opposed the plea and said that not allowing a student to enter the college premises amounted to punishment, which showed that disciplinary action was taken against him.

During the hearing, court asked DU how a warning given to a student by a college could be construed as disciplinary action taken against him.

"He (petitioner) says he was warned by Shivaji College and it was not a disciplinary action which this court is finding to be true. I don't understand how can it be a disciplinary action. By no stretch of imagination, it can be put as a disciplinary action," the court observed.

Talking to IANS earlier, DU Chief Election Officer S.B. Babbar had said that Tuseed's name was dropped from the nomination list also because he had failed to mention the history of disciplinary action against him in an affidavit he was required to submit to the election office.

The remaining NSUI candidates -- Kunal Sehrawat for the post of Vice-President, Meenakshi Meena for Secretary and Avinash Yadav for Joint Secretary -- remain in the field as announced earlier.

--IANS

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