Skipping DUSU defacement norms meeting may invite action: HC

The Delhi High Court said today that it would consider taking necessary penal action against the students whose names appeared in wall writings during the recent DUSU polls and those who are not participating in the meetings held to frame guidelines to prevent such incidents.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar directed the students, who were not participating in the deliberations being held by Delhi University (DU), to take part in them.
The court also issued directions to the Delhi metro and the municipal corporation of north Delhi to meet advocate Aman Panwar, representing DU Students' Union (DUSU) president Rocky Tuseed and another poll candidate, to "evolve a mechanism for removing or suitably covering up the existing defacements".

The order came on a PIL by a lawyer, Prashant Manchanda, seeking a complete ban on defacement of public properties by the candidates for the DUSU polls.
The court asked Panwar, Manchanda and DMRC's lawyer, Pushkar Sood, to meet and examine the various suggestions given to prevent defacements during polls and to draft "agreed guidelines" to be circulated in the next deliberation of all the stakeholders.
The Dean of Student Welfare of the varsity was directed by the court to convene a meeting to arrive at a set of guidelines to be implemented in the future polls in DU.

Meanwhile, the Centre, Delhi government and the metro were asked to file reports of the action taken by them to publicise the penal consequences of defacing public and private property.

The central government was asked by the court to make use of Doordarshan to spread awareness, while the Delhi government was told to campaign more vigorously.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on January 30, 2018.