Calcutta HC asks West Bengal govt to complete pending college, university elections

The Calcutta High Court, on Thursday, asked the Bengal government to complete the pending students’ council elections in all colleges and universities. The division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das directed the state government to issue the notification for college elections at the earliest.

The division bench also observed that the state government should first issue the notification for conducting students’ council elections, and the court would decide on the matter.

On Thursday, the division bench also observed that the educational institutions in Bengal should be free of political influence. The state government counsel informed the court that the students’ council elections could not be conducted in some universities because of the absence of full-time vice-chancellors.


Earlier this month, the same division bench directed the West Bengal Higher Education departments that the union rooms, which are referred to as common rooms, in all colleges and universities in the state should remain locked until the students’ union elections in those institutes were conducted and the results were declared.

The Calcutta High Court made significant observations during hearings on the South Kolkata Law College incident and stated that all union rooms or common rooms should be closed following the South Calcutta Law College rape incident in the union room of the college.

The investigation has revealed that the victim was called by the three accused, Monojit Mishra, Jaib Ahmed, and Pramit Mukherjee, to the common room within the campus.