Teesha
Panjab University approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the March judgement which asked the varsity to hold polls within two months.
The appeal was heard by the bench of Justice Ritu Bahri, while appearing for the Varsity Additional Solicitor General, Satya Pal Jain apprised that the poll was scheduled for April 26th as the announcement of April 16th.
Thereafter, the notification was revised and the election was scheduled for May 19th.
However, as per the current COVID situation and the State Government’s restrictions on any gathering, ceiling the attendants to 20 people, the elections cannot be held as there are 3, 75,500 voters spread across six different states.
The matter was not opposed by the respondents represented by Advocate RS Cheema, therefore the court adjourned the issue till July 8th stating that it will reassess the condition on the adjourned date.
The University stated that there was no evidence in the entire petition as to how a particular person has been unduly benefitted or prejudiced by the Varsity’s decision of deferring polls, and that the claims against the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Raj Kumar upn the way he acted on political considerations were unwarranted.
On March 23rd the High Court while criticising the role of PU VC Raj Kumar, directed the university to hold the senate polls within two months.
The order came in after the plea of seven former senators who moved the court seeking directions to hold governing body polls as the tenure of the same ended on 31st October 2020.
Panjab University in the current plea appealed that the judgement of 23rd March was contrary to the facts and the three division bench’s judgement of High Court directing provisions in the view of the pandemic.
Further, PU told the court that it was bound to follow the restrictions imposed by the respective state during the pandemic.
