The Chamber Judge Court of the Appellate Division has stayed a High Court order that reinstated Amartya Roy’s candidacy for the vice-president (VP) post in the Jahangirnagar University Central Students’ Union (Jucsu) election.
As a result, Amartya will not be able to contest the Jucsu election, and there is no barrier to holding the polls on schedule, lawyers said.
The order came on Tuesday from the Chamber Judge Court of Justice Md Rezaul Haque following a petition challenging the High Court directive.
Earlier in the day, the High Court had directed Jahangirnagar University authorities to reinstate Amartya’s VP candidacy and to communicate the order to the university by Tuesday. The HC bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Biswajit Debnath delivered the directive after hearing a writ petition filed by Amartya.
Advocate Manjur Al Matin Pitom represented the petitioner, while Advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir stood for the university. Subsequently, a petition was filed with the Chamber Judge Court seeking a stay on the High Court order.
On September 8, Amartya, whose candidacy had earlier been cancelled, filed the writ petition seeking permission to contest the Jucsu election, scheduled for September 11. He had been nominated as the VP candidate from the “Sompiritir Oikko” panel, backed by progressive student groups.
On September 6, the Jucsu Election Commission had announced on the university’s website that Amartya’s candidacy was invalid. According to the notice, Amartya, a student of the 2017-18 academic session in the archaeology department, was deemed ineligible as a voter or candidate under Sections 4 and 8 of the Jucsu constitution, based on university authorities’ decision. Consequently, his name was removed from both the voter and candidate lists.
Amartya later challenged the legality of that decision through a writ petition with the High Court, leading to the developments of Tuesday.
