New Delhi, 02 September (H.S.): The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the administration of Delhi’s Janki Devi Memorial College (JDMC) on a petition challenging the cancellation of Rakiba Tarannum’s election as General Secretary in the college students’ union elections. A bench headed by Justice Jasmeet Singh directed that the matter be listed for further hearing on October 12.

Rakiba Tarannum is a BA Sociology Honours student at Janki Devi Memorial College. During the hearing, advocate Ashok Aggarwal, appearing for Rakiba Tarannum, submitted that the petitioner had won the post of General Secretary in the college students’ union elections held on August 24. He said Rakiba Tarannum had secured the highest number of votes, but the college administration cancelled her election on August 26 and declared another candidate, Rashmi Singh, elected to the post of General Secretary.

The petition states that the reason cited for cancelling Rakiba’s election was that the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) had congratulated her on its Instagram page the day after the election. Rakiba Tarannum has stated that she has no control over the concerned Instagram account and is not a member of any political party or student organisation. The petition further states that before cancelling the petitioner’s election, she was neither served a show-cause notice nor shown any written complaint establishing her connection with the social media post.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar