THE ‘ROCKY’ DUSU PRESIDENCY
Rocky Tuseed’s presidential tenure in the DUSU comes to an end after Delhi High Court questioned his eligibility
After having served close to a year as the DUSU (Delhi University Students’ Union) president, Rocky Tuseed will no longer be holding the position as the Delhi High Court (HC), on Friday, found that he had furnished false information in his affidavit to the poll panel at the time of election nominations, something that made him ineligible.
He was hauled up by the Delhi HC over “attempt to murder” charges for his involvement in an altercation in 2014 at DU’s Shivaji College.
According to an FIR filed against Tuseed on August 6, 2014 in West Delhi’s Rajouri Garden police station by Bhagat Singh, a final year student of Shivaji College, the fight took ahead of a meeting for the presidential elections that year. Singh has accused Tuseed of hitting him with a wooden plank on his head.
Justice V Kameswar Rao was quoted as saying, “The issue raised in the petition goes to the root [of] whether the petitioner (Tuseed) could at all stand for election to the post of president. The answer to which is ‘No’.”
What does this mean? We reached out to Professor SB Babbar, who serves as chief election officer of DU to understand the situation better. This is what he had to say: “The HC order has deemed Rocky Tuseed as unfit for the post because of false information furnished at the time of election nominations which we were not aware of earlier.”
“In the absence of the DUSU president, the vice president usually assumes his duties but I must clarify that he does not get to serve as President. However, since this is a special case, what is to be done is yet to be decided upon. I am not a legal entity, but a professor; however, I can assure that whatever decision is taken will be in the best interest of the university,” Babbar added.
National Students’ Union of India’s (NSUI) official twitter handle also tweeted about the matter. “In the matter of Rocky Tuseed, we are examining the High Court Order. NSUI-led DUSU has brought peace to Delhi University and has done exemplary work. We will appeal against this order to ensure continuity of our good work.” Tuseed confirmed this later, saying, “We will be appealing against the order before a larger bench.”
Mahamedhaa Nagar of ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad), who is the DUSU secretary, was unavailable for a direct comment. However, she chose to write us a message that read, “The petition of Rocky Tuseed has been dismissed and HC has held that he is ineligible for the post of president. Our team brought all the issues to the knowledge of HC and the court has based its decision on it. So, in DUSU records, his name should be removed as president.”
In the absence of the DUSU president, the vice president usually assumes his duties but I must clarify that he does not get to serve as President. PROFESSOR SB BABBAR CHIEF ELECTION OFFICER, DU
Our team brought all the issues to the knowledge of the HC and the court has based its decision on it. So, in DUSU records, Rocky’s name should be removed as president. MAHAMEDHAA NAGAR ABVP