Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court Tuesday directed the West Bengal Education Department to immediately complete the pending elections for student’s councils in all the state universities and all colleges under different universities.
A division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya asked the education department to immediately identify the universities and colleges where the elections for the students’ council are still pending and send directives to their authorities to immediately complete the election process there.
The bench has also sought a report on the progress in this count in the form of an affidavit from the state government as early as possible.
Tuesday, the Chief Justice’s division bench also directed the state education department to identify the universities and other educational institutions where the anti-ragging committees with representations from all stakeholders are yet to be constituted and take immediate steps to set up such committees there.
The order on this count is perceived to be extremely crucial against the backdrop of the recent ragging-related death of a fresher at Jadavpur University August 10.
The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Calcutta High Court’s counsel Sayan Banerjee. When the court directed earlier that all elected students’ councils should have representation in the anti-ragging committees in their respective institutes, the petitioner pointed out that the elections for students’ councils in several institutes and universities were pending since 2017.
The Chief Justice then asked who is responsible for timely completion of students’ council elections. At this, the petitioner said that the authorities of educational institutions can conduct the elections only after getting necessary instructions from the state education department.
IANS
