Delhi HC Allows NSUI Presidential Candidate to Contest DUSU Polls

The nomination of Rocky Tuseed’s was rejected by the DU Chief Election Officer on grounds of disciplinary action.

NSUI’s presidential candidate Rocky Tuseed (centre) campaigning.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Rocky Tuseed II)

The Delhi High Court on Friday allowed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) candidate Rocky Tuseed, whose nomination for presidential post was rejected, to contest the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections. Tuseed had been rejected for coming under ‘disciplinary action’, although the incident over which such action had been taken has not been made public.

In an interim order, Justice Indermeet Kaur granted the relief to Tuseed by allowing him to contest the polls to be held on 12 September.

The court listed his main petition challenging the rejection of his nomination by the DU Chief Election Officer (CEO) on grounds of disciplinary action for September 28

The detailed order would come later.

Earlier in the day, the High Court questioned Delhi University for rejecting the nomination of the Congress-affiliate NSUI's presidential candidate for the upcoming students' body elections.

It sought to know from the University how a warning given to a student by a college could be termed as disciplinary action taken against him.

The petitioner says he was warned by Shivaji College and it was not disciplinary action which this court is finding to be true. I don’t understand how can it be disciplinary action. By no stretch of imagination, it can be put as disciplinary action

Judge

The court also said that the university was "stigmatising" the student by rejecting his nomination.

Senior advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for Tuseed, questioned how the CEO can reject his nomination on the basis of an anonymous complaint. Speaking on behalf of his client, Chidambaram contended:

“It was done behind my back. If there was any disciplinary action against me in the past by the college authorities, I should have been called and heard. I was only warned and no disciplinary action was taken.”

He argued that according to the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines, a person is not eligible for contesting polls if he has been convicted in any criminal offence and/or there is disciplinary action against him.

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Senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, appearing for DU and CEO office, opposed the plea saying it was not maintainable and the university had been wrongly made a party.

He said that not allowing a student to enter the college premises amounted to punishment, which showed that disciplinary action was taken against him.

A student is not necessarily sent behind bars. He was barred from entering the college. What is this, if not a disciplinary action? He was called along with his mother and he has apologised.

Sudhir Nandrajog, senior advocate

NSUI candidate Tuseed's nomination was cancelled on 6 September. Tuseed's name was not part of the list of candidates released by DU's CEO office on Wednesday. The list of six candidates included the names of ABVP's Rajat Choudhary and AISA's Parul Chauhan.

He had said he has contested elections earlier too for the Department of Buddhist Studies' students body and hence should be allowed to contest the DUSU elections.

‘Had Disallowed Rocky from Entering College After Incident of Indiscipline’: Shivaji College Principal

Regarding the incident that took place at Shivaji College, the principal of the college was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying:

There was an incident of indiscipline in 2014, and we had not allowed Rocky Tuseed to even enter the college premises after that. He was only allowed to appear for the exams, as we did not want to spoil his future. He did not come to the college the entire year.

Shashi Nijhawan, Shivaji College Principal

Moreover, while the NSUI claimed that the college had even awarded a "good moral conduct certificate" to Tuseed, this was denied by the principal.

(With inputs from PTI)

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