Damage to property: Delhi HC demands DUSU candidates to appear in court | Latest Indian News

New Delhi, The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notices to several student candidates to appear before it on charges of damaging government property during the Delhi University Students’ Union elections in September 2024.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Mamohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, declared several candidates as parties to the proceedings, ordering them to appear before the court on October 28 and explain their conduct.

“Those candidates who have seriously damaged government property should be brought here,” the bench said, asking the petitioner to name the names.

The court questioned the university as well as the Delhi Police for not taking adequate action against those responsible for vandalism and hooliganism.

The court, which suspended the counting of votes in the DSUS elections until all defamatory materials, including posters, billboards and graffiti, are removed and government property is restored, reiterated the warning.

The court orally asked the Delhi University lawyer to advise the vice-chancellor that an administrative error had led to this unfortunate situation and that he should take remedial action.

“There are cars without license plates driving around Delhi University and they are doing nothing, which is very surprising. You need to do something, these candidates are studying in your colleges and you have complete power. They are campaigning on luxury cars which are not even numbered,” the bench noted.

The court further noted that such scenes were not observed even during municipal elections, although it was allowed during elections to universities and colleges.

“How can you allow students to vandalize on highways? You will inform the Vice-Chancellor about this, otherwise we will issue some orders regarding speeches,” the board warned.

It also said that the police should take action against such vehicles plying on the roads, calling it a serious problem.

The court was hearing a petition seeking prosecution of potential candidates from DUSU and student organizations involved in the alleged damage, defacement, pollution and destruction of public walls.

Although voting took place on September 27, the counting of votes scheduled for September 28 was stopped by the Supreme Court.

Petitioner and lawyer Prashant Manchanda said there were cases of people crashing into women’s colleges during election campaigns and people were afraid to use areas where they witnessed convoys of 80-100 vehicles.

Two candidates, who contested elections in two separate DU colleges, urged the court to allow the counting of votes and declaration of results, saying they took the initiative to clean up the area and motivated other students.

Their lawyer argued that the student union’s term of office was one year and only eight months remained.

The judge, however, made it clear that until the entire place is cleared, the results will not be declared.

“These costs can go down the drain. We’re not going to stop counting. You clean up the area and the counting will be allowed the next day. These candidates will have to spend money to clean up the disgraced university grounds. When they can afford big luxury cars for campaigning, they can surely bring along a tractor and a JCB to clean it up,” it said.

In its status report, Delhi University submitted in response to the notice to colleges/departments/institutes/centres, a report on the current status of defacement of public and private properties was sent to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Elections, DUSU.

“More than 90 percent of the colleges/faculties/institutes/centers were found to have cleared their campuses of any damage,” the report said.

The claim was contested by the petitioner, MCD and DMRC, which showed videos and photographs claiming that the areas were not cleaned.

DU also said that the damage assessment team has been asked to estimate the loss of revenue of the affected parties like MCD, DMRC and come up with a formula for compensating the losses.

It said letters have been written to the MCD and DMRC seeking details of the estimated costs caused by the spoilage.

MCD Lawyer Says DU Should Be Asked to Pay ₹1 crore to the civic body towards the expenses incurred by it to clean up the damaged property.

The court directed Delhi Police, MCD and DU to file fresh status reports in the case and announced a hearing on October 28.

This article was created from an automated news agency feed without modifications to the text.