Students’ union polls in colleges affiliated to the University of Calicut for 2021-22 are likely to be held by February last week or March first week.
This follows an online meeting the university authorities had with representatives of students’ organisations on Monday. Syndicate sources said that all the students’ leaders demanded that the polls be held in line with the COVID protocol, though they were concerned about the rapid transmission of the infection.
However, since exams are going to be held for various courses in the coming weeks, there is likely to be a clash of dates. So, it was proposed that the polls could be held by February last week or March first week. A Syndicate sub-committee would discuss the proposal and submit a report before the Syndicate meeting scheduled for January 29, the sources said.
The students’ union polls have not been held for the past two years in view of the pandemic. Thus, the university union general council has not been constituted and the university union polls too have not been held. In the absence of the university union, arts festivals too are not being held.
The Syndicate had in December 2019 amended the election bylaws to carve out an executive council from the general council of the university students’ union. Only members of this council were given voting rights to pick university union functionaries. All the university union councillors (UUC) from aided and government colleges, university departments and university study centres were to be its members. Only one-third of the UUCs from self-financing colleges, however, were made part of it. The UUC from self-financing colleges said in a petition before the Kerala High Court that they were denied their rights to choose university union functionaries.The Kerala High Court in February 2020 struck down the amendment. Implications of this verdict too were reportedly discussed at the meeting.
