'Absolute Corruption Of Youth': Delhi High Court Calls For 'Stringent Action' Against Candidates Defacing Public Property Amid DUSU Polls

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Delhi University to take stringent action against the candidates indulging in vandalism and defacing public property during the ongoing students' union elections, calling the situation “worse than the general elections.”

A division bench comprising of Chief Justice designate, Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed that prima facie, expenditure in crores has been incurred by the candidates contesting the polls and remarked that the use of this amount of money in students' union elections is corrupting the students “right at the inception.”

“What is the use of having this election? It's a festival of democracy, not a festival of laundering of money. This is laundering of money which is taking place over here,” the court remarked.

The court was dealing with a plea moved by Advocate Prashant Manchanda in 2017 seeking action against the candidates indulging in the defacement of public properties. The plea also sought the removal of the defacement and refurbishment of the areas. A fresh application was moved by Manchanda against the recent vandalism and defacement amid DUSU polls.

Proceedings before court

The counsel appearing for Delhi University told the court that show cause notices have been issued to 14 candidates today as to why their candidature should not be cancelled for indulging in the defacement of public properties.

Manchanda submitted that it would take a very long process to remove the spray paints on walls and that the refurbishment exercise done earlier took one and a half years to be complete and expenditure of crores of rupees.

To this, the bench told the varsity's counsel: “There are two three ways of doing this. One is, you will disqualify the candidates who have done this. The other is that you will…the problem is it is not being properly removed…It (wall) has to be repainted. If they can put up posters, they can pay for the repainting also! what's the problem?…and this seems to be financed. See, this is not some ordinary student who's fighting an election. This seems to be an organized group which is doing it… they all have deep pockets. They will pay for it. What's the problem?”

The court asked Delhi University to either defer the elections till everything gets cleaned up or to disqualify the candidates and ask the new ones “to be quiet.”

It further said that another alternative with the varsity is to allow the election to take place on the date fixed but to not announce the result till everything gets cleaned up.

“This is done by a literate group or an illiterate group? This sort of defacement and all will be done by someone who is illiterate. I think this is a failure of our education system,” the court remarked.

It said: “I think you will have to come down with a heavy hand….These people have spent a lot of money. Let it go down the drain. They will realize it the hard way…..You tell them to first clean it up, it must be repainted, restored and then you allow elections to take place…. Please see the amount of money being spent. This is worse than general elections.”

The court also asked the Chief Election Officer, who was present in court, as to how much money was being spent in the students' union elections.

“Is there some counting which is done? Any audit being done? This must be a few crores which has been spent. It is not even a lakhs,” the court said.

The bench remarked: “Look at the defacement that has taken place. I think that it is time the VC took a decision in the matter, and if he has to annul the elections, he'll annul the elections. If they have spent so much of money, they need to suffer the hard way. Let it go down the drain.”

The counsel appearing for the varsity told the court that a meeting will be held by the Vice Chancellor m after 4 PM today and a decision will be taken on the issue.

The bench then told the Chief Election Officer that he must realize that he has the power and that he should not feel handicapped.

“You are not a person without power. If people are not complying with your orders, you are not supposed to be just passing paper orders. You will enforce your order,” the court told the officer.

As the officer responded that money in crores is being spent in the polls, the court said:

“ Please see, this election system is not supposed to corrupt the youth no? This is absolute corruption of the youth. In a place of learning, people are behaving as if they're illiterates. Only an illiterate person could behave in this manner, no? Look at the way they're putting up their handbills, their posters. They're now even started putting it up on the road. I can't believe it. And Delhi University is doing nothing!! Please take some stringent action so that people get a lesson of their lifetime that this money can also go waste. They have lot of money to spare it seems…..This is a serious matter involving corruption of our students. If they get corrupted at that level, then there is no end to it.”

The court also remarked: “I don't think we can have elections in this atmosphere. This man (Chief Election Officer) is not enforcing what he wants to do. He has to be sure that he has the power. Today's officers don't know that they have the power to do anything. They feel they are helpless. You are not helpless. You have all the power. You can't allow crores to be spent on elections like this, and that too students union. If they are spending, they're going to recover it. Be careful about that.”

During the hearing, the counsel for MCD and DMRC handed over the instances of defacement of public properties.

The counsel for MCD further stated that between September 13 to September 25th, the civic body removed 16,000 boards, two lakh posters and pamphlets and 28,500 banners in total. He also stated that four truckloads of material have been removed to date.

The court however noted that despite the removal, it was apparent that defacement of public property was still on a very large and wide scale.

“This court is of the prima facie view that expenditure in crores has been incurred by the candidates contesting the elections,” the court noted.

The counsel for the varsity then prayed that the matter be taken up tomorrow as the University was planning to take a decision with regard to the elections by then.

The matter will be heard tomorrow at 2:30 PM.

Title: Prashant Manchanda v. Union of India & Ors.