Delhi High Court: Delhi University polls: Clean up campus if you want counting of votes, HC tells candidates | Delhi News

NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court on Wednesday made it clear to the candidates seeking declaration of results of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections that they would have to clean up the campus and its surroundings if they wanted vote count to take place. The university campus and nearby areas were defaced during the recently held polls.
“Why don’t you clean up the mess? The day the place is cleaned up, we will allow the counting of votes the very next day.We have not seen this even in general elections. What is happening in university elections?” a bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said.
The court was hearing an application filed by two candidates who contested the college elections in separate DU colleges and sought declaration of the results.
The court had on Sept 26 halted the counting of votes and the declaration of results of DUSU and college elections, saying its purpose was only to send a message that such violations would not be tolerated.
“Every day in the city, some crisis or the other is happening. There is dengue, malaria. It’s all because we are littering the place. And this (election) is a festival of democracy; it is not supposed to be a festival of money laundering,” the court remarked, pointing out it had even recorded such an observation in its earlier order.
The counsel for the two candidates informed the court that they will ensure the premises of Law Centre II and Ramjas College, where they are studying, are cleaned up and re-painted in coordination with the varsity.
The application was filed in a pending petition seeking action against DUSU candidates and student outfits involved in damaging, defacing, soiling or destroying the beauty of public walls. While the candidates claimed they were not involved in defacement activities, the court asked them to convince the “rich candidates, who were campaigning in luxurious cars, to spend some money to repaint the damaged portions.”
The court further recalled that people were spending so much money and posters and stickers were being thrown over there in the air during the elections. “You as candidates must correct the system. You are the leader. You will tell the other followers of yours that please don’t do this, please clean up the university,” it asserted.
Petitioner Prashant Manchanda, an advocate, said the erring candidates and their parties must be directed to remove the defacement and refurbish the areas and make efforts to beautify the destroyed portions.
The court then granted time to the candidates, the petitioner, MCD and DMRC to file their status reports and listed the matter for Oct 21, when it is scheduled to take stock of progress in the case.
The polling was held on Sept 27 and the counting of votes was to be done the next day.