Calcutta High Court directs state to lock union rooms in institutions where students' body elections are pending

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday ordered that students' union rooms in colleges and universities across West Bengal, where students' body elections are pending, should remain closed.

Prohibiting all forms of recreational activities inside union rooms, the court directed that these rooms can be used for official purposes, if absolutely required, only after written permission from the registrar of the university or the principal of the institution concerned.

A division bench, presided by Justice Soumen Sen, passed the order during the hearing of a set of Public Interest Litigations on the alleged gang rape of a first-year student inside the premises of South Calcutta Law College in Kasba area here on the evening of June 25.

The part of the order allowing the use of such rooms under special circumstances would, however, not be applicable to the students' union room of the South Calcutta Law College, which is currently sealed for the sake of investigation, the bench specified.

The alleged torture of the woman at the law college was led by Monojit Mishra, a now-arrested former student, and assisted by two college seniors, Zaib Ahmed and Pramit Mukherjee. The crime took place for over three hours at multiple locations inside the campus, including the students' union room, the victim said in her complaint with the police.

The investigation is currently being carried out by the Detective Department of the Kolkata Police.

According to information available in public domain, Mishra, the prime accused in the case, is a former TMCP leader of the college who was later appointed as a casual employee in the institution. He allegedly used the union room premises to extort, threaten and abuse vulnerable students in the past.

Students' body elections across educational institutions in Bengal have remained on hold for several years. At least two petitions seeking directions to the state education department for holding students' elections are pending before the high court.

The court on Thursday also directed the state government to file an affidavit on its plans to hold the pending elections. The matter would be heard next on July 17.

Responding to the high court's order, Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) state president Trinankur Bhattacharya told PTI: "We will go by the directives of the honourable high court and look forward to July 17 when the matter will be heard again." He, however, asserted that union rooms don't belong to any political party but to the general students.

They use the union rooms for various administrative and academic procedures, said the leader of the ruling TMC's student wing. "Once we go through the entire judgment, we can come up with a more detailed response on the issue," Bhattacharya added.