Calcutta HC asks WB govt to inform it when students' union polls will be held in colleges

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court Thursday asked the West Bengal government to inform it how it plans to hold the students' body elections in various colleges and universities in the state. A lawyer moved the high court seeking early elections to the student bodies in the institutions, claiming that polls for the unions have not been held for nearly a decade. A division bench presided by Justice Soumen Sen asked the state government to inform the court within two weeks as to when it plans to make the notification for the elections to the students' unions.

The state government's counsel claimed before the bench, also comprising Justice Smita Das De, that there are no permanent vice chancellors in most of the universities in the state at present and that the issue of appointment of vice chancellors is under litigation. The petitioner claimed that there is no requirement for permanent vice-chancellors to hold students' union elections. The high court has recently ordered that students' union rooms in all colleges where there is no elected student body be kept under lock and key following a gangrape allegation in a law college in south Kolkata.