Bombay HC To Hear Plea Challenging Suspension of MU Senate Elections On August 30

Mumbai: Bombay High Court will hear on Wednesday a plea challenging the Mumbai University's decision to suspend the ongoing Senate Elections alleging it was done due to political pressure. The plea was mentioned today before a bench of Justices Sunil Shukre & Firdosh Pooniwalla.

The petition filed by advocate Sagar Devre sought that the circular issued by the MU staying the senate elections be set aside and the university be directed to take immediate steps to commence and complete the election program scheduled on September 10. 

Suspension Circular Passed On August 17

On August 9, Vice Chancellor (VC), chancellor and Registrar issued an election notification and announced the 'senate elections' of the University of Mumbai for 10 seats of the Graduate Constituency. The last date for filing of the nominations was August 18. Suddenly, due to the political pressure, the MU released a circular on August 17 staying the senate election for indefinite period which was scheduled on September 10.

According to the plea, the last senate elections were held on March 26, 2018 and the tenure of the same was till September 30, 2022. The MU started the process of senateelections in June 2022. The final electoral roll was published on July 27, 2023.

On August 9, a corrected final electoral roll containing 94, 613 voters was published after rectifying duplicate voters. The same day, BJP MLA Ashish Shelar raised objections on the electoral roll and wrote a letter to the education minister.

On August 17, the deputy secretary, Higher and Technical Education Department instructed MU to inquire into Shelar’s objections. MU contended that the inquiry can not be conducted in a day and hence issued a notification staying the senate elections.