Won’t be contempt of court: Legal opinion on Jamia students’ union poll

Members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC), formed for the restoration of the students’ union in Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), have submitted a legal opinion to the varsity administration demanding immediate announcement of dates for union elections.

 The legal opinion, given by senior Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Hegde, states that the conduct of students’ union polls in JMI “shall never be a contempt of court in any way”. It also says that announcement of union elections will be in “furtherance of the assurance given to the court by JMI in its affidavit dated 20.07.12”.

Ever since the university students’ union was banned in 2006, considerable efforts have been put in by students for the lifting of the ban. A petition was also filed in the Delhi High Court in 2012 by a Bachelor’s student, Hamidur Rahman, demanding the same.

“I am informed that the original petitioner appears to have completed his course in the university and left Delhi. It is unlikely that he still has a cause to personally espouse in the high court in this manner,” Hegde said in his legal opinion.

 On October 5, 2017, hundreds of students had marched to vice-chancellor Talat Ahmad’s office and submitted a memorandum demanding restoration of the union. As the administration failed to meet their demands, PhD student Meeran Haider, along with other students, went on a hunger strike on October 25.

It was ended on the promise of the university V-C that “if we produce a legal opinion of any senior advocate that holding a students’ union election shall not be contempt of court ‘then I as the V-C of JMI shall announce the election date’”, a JAC member said. While the varsity administration agrees with the students’ demand “in principle”, they cite legal hurdles in holding the election.

“Since we have submitted a legal opinion to the dean of students’ welfare, we shall now ask the university administration to announce the election date as soon as possible, in this very semester,” Haider told Newslaundry.

Another student, Shamser Khan Ghazi, who was on an indefinite hunger strike, said “if the administration manipulates our demand for a union, then we shall be forced to resort to a stronger and more democratic means to get our demand fulfilled”.