After a law student was raped, the Calcutta High Court ordered students’ union offices to remain closed in all Bengal colleges and universities. The court ruled, “Keep union offices closed until elections,” banned recreational use and allowed access with permission.
Kolkata: Calcutta High Court ordered that students’ union rooms in colleges and universities throughout West Bengal, where student body elections are pending, must remain closed.
The court prohibited all forms of recreational activities in these union rooms, allowing their use for official purposes only with written permission from the registrar of the university or the principal of the institution, if absolutely necessary.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Soumen Sen and Smita Das De directed that the students’ union rooms will stay closed until student elections are conducted.
This directive was issued by a division bench led by Justice Soumen Sen during the hearing of several Public Interest Litigations related to the alleged gang rape of a first-year student at South Calcutta Law College in the Kasba area on the evening of June 25.
The bench clarified that the provision allowing the use of union rooms under special circumstances does not apply to the students’ union room at South Calcutta Law College, which is currently sealed as part of the investigation.
The alleged assault on the woman was reportedly carried out by Monojit Mishra, a former student now in custody, with assistance from two senior students, Zaib Ahmed and Pramit Mukherjee.
According to the victim’s complaint, the crime occurred over three hours at various locations on campus, including the students’ union room.
The investigation is being conducted by the Detective Department of the Kolkata Police. Publicly available information indicates that Mishra, the main accused, was a former TMCP leader at the college and later became a casual employee there.
He allegedly used the union room to extort, threaten, and abuse vulnerable students in the past.
Student body elections across educational institutions in West Bengal have been on hold for several years.
At least two petitions seeking directives for the state education department to conduct these elections are currently pending before the high court.
Additionally, the court directed the state government to file an affidavit detailing its plans for holding the pending elections, with the matter set to be heard again on July 17.
Case Title: Sayan Banerjee v State of West Bengal and Anr