The state government has directed all state-aided universities and government and aided colleges to immediately stop collecting “students’ union fees” or any fees “meant to be spent for the students’ union”.

The June 1 order also directs institutions not to “incur any expenditure” from money collected under the students’ union fee head.

The order says any funds already collected as students’ union fees “shall be kept secured in a separate interest-bearing account”.

“The fee shall not be utilised or disbursed” until further orders from the education department or until a students’ union is elected in accordance with the law, it says.

The directive has come ahead of the admission season in colleges and universities.

The order also asks institutions to conduct an “audit of all expenditure” from students’ union funds since the date of the last duly held students’ union election or since the expiry of the last elected body, whichever is earlier.

“The audit report shall be submitted to the director of public instructions within 30 days of this order,” it says.

Institutions have also been asked to submit compliance reports detailing the steps taken to stop fee collection, secure existing funds and complete the audit. Any violation may invite “appropriate action”, the order adds.

The directive refers to a Calcutta High Court order of July 3, 2025, instructing the education department to shut down union rooms in colleges and universities.

Hearing a petition on pending students’ union elections in colleges and universities across the state, a division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Smita Das had ordered that union rooms be shut because campus elections had not been held since 2019.

The court order had come close on the heels of the gang rape of a 24-year-old law student in the union room and later in a security guard’s room at South Calcutta Law College on June 25, 2025.

The June 1 order says: “Any violation will be treated as non-compliance of the court’s order.”

A vice-chancellor of a state-aided university said that although students’ unions no longer existed formally because elections had not been held, Trinamool student supporters continued to dominate campuses. “The union rooms remained open. Leaders of the Trinamool unit on campus charged students fees to organise fests and other events. On many campuses, former student leaders controlled everything. The tragedy at South Calcutta Law College was a glaring example of the excesses student leaders often indulged in,” the VC said.

Former Trinamool Chhatra Parishad leader Monojit Mishra is the main accused in the gang rape case at the law college.

The death of singer KK in June 2022 after he fell ill during a performance at Nazrul Mancha, organised by Gurudas Mahavidyalaya, had prompted questions about how the students’ union arranged funds for an event of that scale. The students’ union of the college had been accused of illegally selling passes for the programme.

“We hope the new government resumes students’ union elections, which have remained stalled for years. Regular elections ensure some accountability among student leaders,” a college principal said.