Vishal Kumar Mehra vs University Of Delhi & Ors.

MINI PUSHKARNA, J (ORAL):

The present writ petition has been filed seeking issuance of directions to the respondents to accept and give effect to the petitioner’s withdrawal of his nomination paper for the post of Joint Secretary, and to consider and accept the petitioner’s nomination paper for the post of Secretary in the Students’ Union Election of Sri Aurobindo College (Evening), University of Delhi for the academic session 2025-2026. Thus, prayer is made that petitioner be allowed to contest the forthcoming College Union elections 2025-2026, for the post of Secretary, by including his name in the final list of valid candidates, by amending/rectifying the Notice dated 11^th September, 2025, issued by the Election Officer.

It is the case of the petitioner that the petitioner is a bona fide Second Year student of B.Com programme at Sri Aurobindo College (Evening), University of Delhi, and had submitted his nomination papers for the posts of Secretary and Joint Secretary for the elections in question.

It is submitted that by way of a revised notification dated 09^th September, 2025, the last date of filing the nomination was 10^th September, 2025, while the last date of withdrawal of nomination by the candidates was 11^th September, 2025 till 06:00 PM. The said revised notification dated 09^th September, 2025, issued by the college, reads as under:

By Notice dated 10^th September, 2025 issued by the Election Officer, nomination of only few students was found valid for Students’ Union Election. Upon protest by the students, the Election Officer and college administration undertook to review the nomination papers on 11^th September, 2025. Thus, a Notification dated 11^th September, 2025 was issued, wherein, the time for withdrawal of nomination, was extended till 07:00 PM on 11^th September, 2025. The said notification reads as under:

As per the case put forward by the petitioner, the petitioner sent his request for review of his nomination for the post of Secretary, by way of a Whatsapp message sent at 06:12 PM on 11^th September, 2025, to a member of the College Elections Committee. Subsequently, by Whatsapp message sent at 6:28 PM on 11^th September, 2025, to the aforesaid member of the College Elections Committee, the petitioner withdrew his nomination for the post of Joint Secretary. However, despite the same, the nomination of the petitioner for both the posts of Secretary and Joint Secretary were cancelled by the Election Committee.

This Court finds no merit in the case as put forth by the petitioner. The Notice dated 11^th September, 2025 issued by the college categorically stated that withdrawal of nomination was allowed by writing an application to the Election Officer. Further, the withdrawal application was required to be signed by the candidate in the presence of the Election Officer. Moreover, a candidate while submitting the application for withdrawal in person, was also required to show his/her identity card. It was clearly stipulated in the notice issued by the college that withdrawal will not be accepted by post or through any messenger. The notice dated 11^th September, 2025 issued by the College, reads as under:

Thus, by Notice dated 11^th September, 2025, the time for withdrawal of nomination was extended till 08:00 PM on 11^th September, 2025. It is to be noted that the said Notice dated 11^th September, 2025, was an extension to the erstwhile Notice dated 10^th September, 2025, which was superseded by the notice dated 11^th September, 2025, after considering the grievances of the students.

Further, this Court also takes note of the stipulation in the nomination form itself, which clearly states as follows:

Thus, it is evident that the withdrawal by the petitioner through Whatsapp message was not a valid withdrawal of his nomination, from the post of Joint Secretary. The natural corollary of the said invalid withdrawal of nomination by the petitioner was that there were two nominations by the petitioner for two posts, i.e., Joint Secretary and Secretary.

This Court takes note of Rules 6 of the Code of Conduct issued by the University of Delhi, for College Students’ Union Elections 2025-2026, which clearly states that no candidate can contest simultaneously for more than one post. The aforementioned Rule 6 is reproduced as under:

Considering the aforesaid discussion, this Court finds no error in the rejection of the nomination forms of the petitioner.

The present petition is found without any merits. The same is accordingly dismissed, along with the pending application.