HC directs govt to shut down union rooms in colleges, varsities

The Calcutta High Court (HC) on Thursday directed the West Bengal government to issue an order to shut down all student union rooms in colleges and universities across the state until student body elections are held.

A division Bench of Justice Somen Sen and Justice Smita Das directed the higher education department in the state to issue notices to all colleges and universities. The court directed that these rooms should be locked and cannot be used for any kind of recreational activities.

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“If there is any urgent need, a formal application with valid reasons must be submitted in writing to the university registrar,” the division Bench ordered.

No student union elections have been conducted in any college in the state since 2017. As a result, no official student councils currently exist.

The court issued the directive in connection with a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Sayan Banerjee particularly at the backdrop against the incident of a gang-rape of a first-year law student at Kasba on 25 June night.

The court has also asked the state government to submit a report clarifying its stand on holding student union elections within two weeks. The next hearing of the case will be held on 17 July.

Earlier this year, Calcutta University decided to keep all student union rooms across its campuses locked until the student elections were conducted. The university claimed the union rooms had become the hotbed of turf wars between groups of students, leading to law and order problems on the campus.

In March, the division Bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam had also directed both the state government and higher education department to file an affidavit in connection with their stand on the student union election in colleges and universities.

While reacting to the HC directive today, Trinankur Bhattacharya, TMCP president, told the media, “Union room does not belong to any particular political party. It belongs to common students. We will wait for the next hearing scheduled on 17 July.”