Kolkata, Aug 1 (IANS) A crucial hearing on the multiple public interest litigations seeking immediate conclusion of pending students’ union council elections in all colleges and universities in West Bengal was postponed on Friday as the state government counsel did not turn up at the hearing in the Calcutta High Court.

Four-time Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member and senior advocate of the High Court, Kalyan Banerjee, was supposed to appear on behalf of the state government. However, as Banerjee did not turn up finally for the hearing, Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Smita Das De posted the hearing.

The next date of hearing has been fixed for August 7. The division bench also directed all parties concerned to appear for the hearing on that day with their points of argument and necessary documents.

To recall, on July 17, the Calcutta High Court, while fixing Friday as the date of hearing, directed the West Bengal government to ensure the fast completion of pending students’ council elections in all colleges and universities in the state as early as possible by issuing the notification for such elections at the earliest.

On that day, as the state government counsel informed the court that the students’ council elections could not be conducted in some universities because of the absence of full-time vice-chancellors there, the division bench observed that elections should be conducted at least in those universities where there are full-time vice-chancellors.

Calcutta High Court, then, also observed that the state government should first issue the notification for conducting students’ council elections, and thereafter, the court would decide on what to do next.

Last month, the Calcutta High Court also directed the West Bengal Higher Education Department to ensure that the union rooms, also often referred to as common rooms, in all colleges and universities in the state remain locked till the time the student elections in those institutes are conducted and the results are declared.

That direction from the Calcutta High Court was quite significant, considering that the union room or common room at South Calcutta Law College (New Campus) at Kasba in South Kolkata became significant in the case of the rape of a student of that college in June.

The investigation revealed that the victim was called by the three accused, Monojit Mishra, Jaib Ahmed, and Pramit Mukhopadhyay, to the common room within the campus. After some initial conversations within the common room, the victim was dragged from there to the adjacent guard room, also within the campus, by the three accused persons, and there she was raped.

–IANS

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