Against the back drop of money power in student union elections, the Supreme Court on Friday accepted the Lyngdoh Committee's recommendations to reform the polls by implementing a slew of measures, including a ban on flow of funds from political parties and a cap of Rs 5,000 on expenditure by candidates.
Accepting the recommendations of the six-member court appointed committee led by former chief election commissioner J M Lyngdoh, the apex court directed that the maximum age for a candidate contesting student polls should be 25 years.
The measures came less than a month after the death of professor H S Sabharwal following violence during polls in a Ujjain college. Five student leaders were arrested in connection with his murder.
Restricting the age limit of the contestants to 25 years was impelled by the committee's report, which highlighted the case of a 54-year old man contesting one of the elections in Allahabad University for whom his 22-year old son campaigned.
However, in the case of research scholars the age limit has been fixed at 28.
To check the increasing role of money power in these elections, the court directed a ceiling of Rs 5,000 as maximum permitted expenditure.
With a view to preventing the inflow of funds from political parties into the election, the court barred the candidates from receiving any political donations except voluntary contibutions made by the student body.
Within two weeks of the declaration of the result, each candidate shall submit audited accounts to the college/university authorities.
