The Delhi High Court instructed Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) candidates to clean up the defaced campus areas if they want the vote counting to proceed on October 9.
A bench led by Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela clarified that the vote count will only be allowed once the campus has been restored. "Clean up the mess, and the day it's done, we'll permit counting the next day," the bench remarked, as reported by PTI.
This decision comes after the court halted counting votes and the declaration of DUSU election results on September 26, emphasizing that any violations, especially defacement, would not be taken lightly.
The court was responding to a petition filed by two DUSU candidates who had participated in the elections and were pushing for the immediate declaration of results. In response, the candidates assured the court they would oversee the cleanup and repainting of the affected areas, working in collaboration with university authorities.
The court has also given time to the petitioners, along with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), to submit status reports. The next hearing for the case is scheduled for October 21.
DUSU elections were held on September 27, with vote counting initially planned for September 28. However, the process remains on hold until the court’s conditions for restoring the campus are met.