SC wants compliance of Lyngdoh panel report

By IANS

New Delhi : Upset over growing politicisation of university campuses and increasing criminalisation of student politics, the Supreme Court Friday sought strict compliance of the J.M. Lyngdoh panel report by the universities.


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A bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice P. Sathashivam asked the central government to apprise it within two weeks of various steps taken by universities to implement the panel’s report on use of money and muscle powers in student body elections.

The bench sought compliance of the recommendations made by Lyngdoh, while warning the government that it would not tolerate any indiscipline in universities.

“They should be first students and then leaders. We don’t want part-time leaders but only students.”

The court’s direction followed a petition by two Delhi University students – Kapil Garg and Aman Sharma – seeking stay on the Delhi University Students’ Union elections, the polling for which took place Friday. The court, however, did not stay the elections.

The two students had sought stay on the ground that the university had failed to implement the recommendations of the Lyngdoh panel report.

They contended that the university was implementing the recommendations only in a piecemeal fashion, making what they termed as “mockery of the Supreme Court orders” of Sep 2006.

The Lyngdoh panel, appointed by the apex court earlier, had made a series of recommendations to curb the growing influence of money and muscle power in students’ politics.

The recommendations included a maximum ceiling of Rs 10,000 on expenditure in university elections by a student. The panel had also recommended clearance of all papers by students in the examination before fighting an election and had made 75 percent attendance as another prerequisite.

The apex court had accepted all the recommendations and asked the government to implement it.

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