A division bench of the high court on Thursday directed the state government to file an affidavit within two weeks stating its position on holding student union elections in colleges and universities.

The bench, comprising Justices Soumen Sen and Smita Das De, stated this while hearing a PIL blaming the government for stalling campus polls. In its initial observation, the court said student polls must be held in universities that have vice-chancellors.

“Tell this court what is your view on conducting student union elections within two weeks,” the bench said.

Senior advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, representing the state, argued: “We do not want to hold polls under officiating VCs who are political appointees. According to the Supreme Court, officiating VCs cannot take policy decisions.”

The bench objected. Justice Sen said: “Let the state government first issue a notification on holding the elections. Then we will see how to go about it.”

The counsel for the petitioner, Sabyasachi Chattopadhyay, countered Bandyopadhyay. “There is no logic in saying polls can’t be held under officiating VCs. Why are elections not being held in colleges under universities that do have VCs?” he asked.

The PIL, filed in 2023, was earlier heard by a division bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam. In March this year, the chief justice noted that the government was issuing periodic notifications “keeping in abeyance all processes” related to student polls. The matter was later transferred to the current bench.

Stalemate

Of 34 state-aided universities, 17 have full-term VCs selected through a Supreme Court-appointed search panel that sent three names to chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The chief minister set the names in order of preference and sent them to the Bengal governor for approval.

The other 17, including Calcutta University, are being run by officiating VCs appointed by the governor, allegedly bypassing the state.

The Supreme Court is hearing a case on the stalemate in appointing full-term VCs to the 17 varsities.

Election freeze

A 2017 state government notification stated polls in colleges and universities would be held every two years. But except for a few unitary universities like Jadavpur, Presidency, and Rabindra Bharati, no student elections have been held since early 2020. Elections in colleges have not been held since 2013.