Bengal Willing To Hold Union Polls, Colleges Not Making Efforts, Court Told

The West Bengal government on Tuesday informed the Calcutta High Court that it is willing to conduct student union elections in colleges and universities across the state. However, the government claimed that the institutions themselves have not shown any initiative in this regard.

The statement was made by state lawyer Kalyan Banerjee during a hearing of a public interest litigation concerning the suspension of student body elections for the past several years. A division bench comprising Justice Sujoy Pal and Justice Smita Das De responded by ordering that 365 colleges and 10 universities be made parties to the case.

Student council elections in higher education institutions in the state have remained suspended since before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Earlier this year, students of Jadavpur University held protests demanding that elections be held, which have been withheld in the institution for five years. The demand gained momentum following the Kasba Law College gang rape case.

During Tuesday's hearing, Kalyan Banerjee said, "The state has not stopped the students' body elections anywhere. In fact, a circular was issued to hold the election. But the colleges have not taken the initiative."

Countering the state's argument, lawyer Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, representing the petitioners, urged the court to seek specific information about which colleges or universities refused to hold elections. "Let the court record these," he said, adding that the state is ultimately responsible for ensuring the polls are held and must be held accountable if they are not.

After hearing arguments from all parties, the High Court has ordered that colleges and universities be added as parties to the case. The next hearing has been scheduled to be held in November.