The High Court of Delhi on Monday, October 21, 2024, in its hearing asked several candidates who were involved in defacement of public property in Delhi University’s Student’s Union (DUSU) elections 2024, to appear before the court on October 28, 2024. This decision is taken by the High Court after the widespread use of posters, graffiti, and pamphlets by candidates during their campaigning process, which led to the damage of public property around the Delhi University campuses.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Mamohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, told that the candidates involved in the defacement may get disqualified and also that the candidates held financially accountable for cleaning up the damage. The court said that if the candidates could bring luxurious cars for their campaigns, then they could also take out money to bring MCD trucks to clear the damages, like painting over walls, removing posters, etc.
The judges also criticized the Municipal Cooperation of Delhi and Delhi Police for not taking action against the candidates and failing to prevent them from creating public damage. The court had earlier suspended the counting of election votes of DUSU 2024 scheduled for September 28 until the defacement mess was cleared up.
The petitioner along with the advocate of this case Prasant Manchanda, showed the photo and video evidence claiming the amount of defacement created. In one of their submitted videos, it is visible that people crashed into women’s colleges during campaigning, and people were scared of using areas where they witnessed convoys of 80-100 cars.
The High Court asked the authorities to take action for the candidates involved, demanding them to either clear the defacement within 24 to 48 hours at their own cost or face the consequences.
The court also criticized the university for failing to enforce its own rules of prohibiting of posters and graffiti outside the designated areas such as campus walls. Additionally, High Court also called upon the Chief Election Officer of DUSU elections to submit a report on what measures they have taken to address this issue.
In the report, they claimed that 90 percent of the Delhi University colleges cleared all the debris from their campuses. But their claim was disputed with the photos and videos MCD and DMRC showed, in which it was seen that areas hadn’t been cleaned.
The court directed Delhi Police, MCD, and DU to file fresh status reports and posted the hearing on October 28.
This case turned out to be a reminder of the responsibility that candidates and DU both have to maintain civic order during the democratic process.
