HC orders closure of students’ union rooms in colleges sans elections

MP | 4 July 2025, Kolkata:  The Calcutta High Court has directed the Bengal Higher Education Department to lock student union rooms in all colleges and universities where no elections have been held in the recent past. The court emphasised that academic activities at South Calcutta Law College (SCLC) must resume at the earliest and should not be hampered by ongoing investigations.

The direction by the Division Bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das De came during the hearing of a PIL filed by advocate Sayan Banerjee. The petitioner referred to the recent alleged gang rape of a student at South Calcutta Law College, claiming that a part of the incident occurred inside a student union room on campus. He further alleged that the prime accused, Monojit Mishra, had been using the student union’s name for various activities, despite the absence of a formally elected body in the institution.

Considering an affidavit by the Law Department revealing that student council elections were pending for extended periods in several universities and colleges, the court ordered that in such institutions, students’ union rooms must be sealed. Entry will only be allowed with written permission from the university registrar or another competent authority, and the specific purpose of access must be stated. This directive excludes student recreational or common rooms.

Regarding SCLC, the court directed that its union room be made accessible only to the investigating agency until further orders.

In an earlier hearing, the state had submitted that elections were delayed due to the absence of full-time vice-chancellors in some universities and its failure to align rules with the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines accepted by the Supreme Court. The court had cautioned that the state cannot continue to defer elections and must comply with existing legal norms.

The West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Composition, Functions and Procedure for Election of Students’ Council) Rules, 2017 mandates that student council elections be held every two years, or as advised by the state government, with each elected council ordinarily having a two-year tenure unless otherwise directed.