Uttaranchal High Court: A Single Judge Bench of Sanjaya Kumar Mishra, J. allowed the writ petition filed by a college student and held that participation in college elections was an integral part of the education and since the right to college election was denied to the student, two years age relaxation should be granted to the student for participating in the elections of college.
Background
In the present case, the petitioner wanted the respondents to grant him 9 months and 7 days age relaxation in upper age limit for contesting the election of student union of his college. The petitioner contended that because of the Covid 19 pandemic, no election could be held in the college for the last two academic sessions. Therefore, the petitioner who was a student at Government Degree College, was denied any chance of participating in the election as a candidate.
Analysis, Law, and Decision
The Court held that participation in the elections of college union was an integral part of the education, and it was an opportunity that was given to the students for developing their leadership qualities and since such a valuable right had been denied to the petitioner, the writ petition was allowed.
The Court directed the respondents to grant age relaxation to the petitioner for two years to participate in the college election. The Court further held that this decision may be taken as a precedent and any other candidates who had been denied any chance of participating in election, should also be granted age relaxation for two years.
[Rajan v. State of Uttaranchal, 2022 SCC OnLine Utt 1621, decided on 19-12-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Nikhil Bisht, Advocate, for the Petitioner;
T.S. Phartiyal, for the Respondent(s).