Rajasthan High Court refuses to order immediate student union elections

The Rajasthan High Court on Friday (December 19, 2025) refused to order immediate elections of student unions in the universities and colleges, while directing the State government to frame a comprehensive policy on conducting the polls and constitute a high-level committee for the purpose.

Justice Umashankar Vyas at the High Court’s Jaipur Bench disposed of a bunch of writ petitions seeking resumption of student union elections, with the direction that the committee should consult all stakeholders, including students and university administration, by January 19, 2026, to decide the future course of action.

“If the elections remain postponed, the government must provide strong and valid reasons,” the court said. The court also observed that though the student body polls represented a democratic right, they could not override the right to education.

The student union elections in all universities and colleges were suspended in the State during the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s tenure from 2003 to 2008. The polls were restarted in 2010, under the subsequent Congress government. They were postponed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and were later resumed in 2022.

In 2023, the elections were again deferred for a few months due to the acquisition of college buildings by the Election Commission for the Assembly polls and the implementation of various parts of the new education policy. Since the formation of the BJP government in December 2023, no action has been taken to resume the student elections.

The petitioners contended that the student representation constituted a “core democratic entitlement” and the students could not be deprived of the democratic right. The State government argued that the polls would disrupt academics during National Education Policy rollout and the Lyngdoh Committee’s timeline for elections within eight weeks of session start was already over.

The court also directed the Election Commission not to use the university and college campuses for election-related activities, while observing that setting up polling booths and other facilities inside the higher educational institutions disrupted the studies.