The court directed the University administration to conduct a fresh election programme and complete it in accordance with the Act
Nagpur: Observing gross violations of rules of Maharashtra Public Universities Act during the process of Senate elections for 10 graduate constituency seats, the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court on Wednesday cancelled the entire process adopted by Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU).
Gold Rate
Wednesday 12 March 2025
The court directed the University administration to conduct a fresh election programme and complete it in accordance with the Act. The court pulled up Vice Chancellor of RTMNU Dr Subhash Choudhary and reminded him that the extraordinary power which carried extraordinary duty, was not meant to rectify the mistake.
The division bench of Justice Atul Chandurkar and Justice Anil Pansare found that several rules of the Act were violated in the election process by the RTMNU. The court said that if the Maharashtra University Act 2016 had given special powers to the Vice-Chancellor, then he also had a special responsibility. The law with special powers cannot be violated at all. In this case, the High Court said that the Vice-Chancellor had no right to change the election schedule by going beyond the provisions of the University Act. Only the legislature has the right to amend the Act.
With this observation, the High Court cancelled the election programme of the university. Following the court’s order, the university has issued a notification postponing the Senate elections that was scheduled on December 17. As per the rules, the university has to conduct elections before November 30 every year. Many universities of the state have conducted elections within the stipulated time, but the RTMNU issued a notification on October 20 and announced the elections on November 30. Only five days were given for filing of B-form and the compulsion to fill the B-Form was abolished for those who got registered for the first time.
According to the Act, the University should announce the nomination and other processes within three months before the election, while the voters’ list should be published 45 days before. However, the RTMNU hastily released the election programme. Amending the provisions to justify their haste, the counsel for the university argued in the court that the university does not have much time, hence the time period is being changed.
Former Senate member Prashant Dekate and others had raised questions on the election programme by filing a petition in the High Court through Adv Manmohan Bajpai. Adv Uday Dastane, Adv Manmohan Bajpai and Adv Paras Kotwal appeared on behalf of the petitioner.
