HC dismisses plea against adding prefix 'A' by candidates in DUSU polls

The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed a plea filed by All India Students Association (AISA) challenging the prevalent practice in the DUSU elections by some contesting candidates to add the alphabet "A" before their names to get their names listed on top of the ballot paper.

Justice V.P. Vaish dismissed the plea, saying the DUSU elections were scheduled to be held on Friday and no relief can be granted at the last stage.

The plea has sought removal of prefixes "A", "a", "AA" or further before the names of candidates.

The plea, filed by AISA through advocate Kamlesh Kumar Mishra, said candidates add the alphabet "A" before their names with a view to get their names listed first or at the top of the ballot paper.

It contended that it was a belief that a large number of voters not committed to any particular contesting candidate but nevertheless exercising their voting right, exercise the same in favour of the candidate whose name appears first on the ballot paper without even bothering to go through all the names.

The court also dismissed another plea filed by Rinka Aggarwal, a student of Ram Lal Anand College, against rejection of his nomination papers for contesting for the post of president of the students' body.

Aggarwal alleged that on August 28, he filed his nomination papers. However, his name was not there in the list of candidates which was published on September 2.