Plea in High Court Seeks Immediate Declaration of Panjab University Senate Election Schedule

Chandigarh (Gurpreet Singh)— Amid growing outrage among students and faculty over the prolonged delay in holding Panjab University Senate elections, a petition has been filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court demanding that the university immediately announce the election schedule for all Senate constituencies.
The plea, moved by Harpreet Singh Dua through advocates R. Kartikeya and R. Akanksha, accuses the university administration of “deliberately stalling” the electoral process under pressure from certain vested groups seeking to undermine the institution’s democratic framework. The petition also questions the motives behind recent administrative changes that, according to the applicant, have eroded the representative character of the university’s governing bodies.
The petitioner argued that the new Senate’s term was supposed to commence on November 1, 2024, but no progress had been made toward holding elections. “The deliberate delay reflects an attempt to dismantle Panjab University’s historic system of participatory decision-making, which has long been a hallmark of its academic governance,” the plea stated.
Citing the ongoing case before the High Court, Dua’s counsel noted that despite a previous order dated March 27 — which had given the Chancellor a final opportunity to respond — no reply had been filed for over seven months. The petitioner alleged that this continued silence pointed to a “calculated effort to derail democratic functioning” within the institution.
The application also took strong objection to a notification issued on October 28, which reportedly reduced the number of Senate seats and removed certain constituencies from the electoral process. “This arbitrary downsizing of the Senate and replacement of elected representation with nominations in the Syndicate strikes at the root of the university’s democratic spirit,” the plea contended.
The counsel further alleged that some individuals, unwilling to contest elections, had manipulated the system “to preserve their influence by bypassing the electoral route altogether.” These actions, the petitioner claimed, amounted to a direct attack on the university’s “heritage of self-governance.”
The High Court has already issued a notice of motion in the ongoing matter, with the next hearing scheduled for December 16. The petitioner has sought judicial intervention to ensure the immediate release of the election schedule and an inquiry to fix accountability for officials allegedly responsible for delaying the process.
The plea comes as campus protests continue, with students, teachers, and alumni voicing concern over what they describe as an “unprecedented democratic breakdown” at one of India’s oldest and most prestigious universities.