'Election of JNUSU members to be nullified if original bills of campaign expenditure not submitted'

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) has been informed by the authorities that the election of its office-bearers will be nullified if they do not submit original bills of campaign expenditure bearing the GST number, according to a letter issued to the students' body.

The university authorities said the bills submitted were not in the correct format.

The elected office-bearers of the union had submitted proofs of the expenditure they had incurred during the campaign for the students' body election on September 28, but was asked to submit the original bills in a letter from Dean of Students (DoS) Professor Umesh Kadam on October 4.

On October 9, the JNUSU had submitted 28 bills of 19 candidates to the DoS, while stating that the "mashaal" (torch) and bamboo sticks used for the "Mashaal Juloos" on September 10 were bought from roadside shops and there were no bills for those.

On October 12, they were asked to submit the original bills bearing the GST number.

The letter from Kadam said the bills submitted by the JNUSU were not in accordance with the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations which said, "Each candidate shall, within two weeks of the declaration of the result, submit complete and audited accounts to the college/university authorities.

"The college/university shall publish such audited accounts within two days of the submission of such accounts through a suitable medium so that any member of the students' body may freely examine the same."
Kadam said, "We have been asking them to submit the bills for over a month, but they have submitted consolidated bills rather than submitting the bills of individual candidates."