The Calcutta High Court has instructed the state education department to shut down union rooms in all colleges and universities.
Hearing a petition on pending students council elections in the state colleges and universities, a division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das issued the order to shut the union rooms since the student council elections have not been held in the colleges and universities.
The division bench has asked the state government to file an affidavit on the pending students council elections within two weeks.
The high court also instructed the union rooms to be opened only in case of some special occasion for which the registrar’s permission is a must.
The order comes close in the heels of the gang-rape of a 24-year old law college at the union room and later at a security guard’s room inside the South Calcutta Law college campus on the evening of June 25.
The Kasba police where the complaint was lodged arrested the main accused, former Trinamool Chhatra Parishad leader Monojit Mishra and his associates, 19-year old Zaib Ahmed and 20-year old Pramit Mukherjee, both students of the same college.
Advocate Sayan Banerjee had moved the high court seeking immediate elections to the students’ council. Earlier, the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court T.S. Sivagnanam had also asked the state government to clarify its stance on holding elections.
Elections to the students’ councils were last held in 2017. In 2019 and 2020, elections were held in Jadavpur University and Presidency University. The students’ organisations of the opposition parties have been demanding holding elections for several years now.