The Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union (JNUSU) has alleged that the university administration is threatening to nullify the results of the recently conducted students’ body polls if the original bills, along with GST number, of the expenditure incurred during the elections are not submitted.
The Dean of Students, in a letter written to the newly elected office bearers, stated: “The bills submitted are not in accordance with the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations and need to be original bills bearing GST number and to be self-attested by each candidate... failing which the election of the candidate will be nullified in the event of non-compliance or in the event of any excessive expenditure.”
“The JNUSU had submitted a declaration of expenses with bills of 19 candidates that ran a joint campaign in the format that they had been used every year since the implementation of the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations in 2012,” the students’ body said in their reply to the letter.
The JNUSU said that they were not liable to know whether the concerned shops from whom they bought articles were eligible for GST or not as there are numerous shops in and around JNU whose turnover is less than the prescribed limit under GST rules, above which the law applies.
The students’ body said that the administration’s concerns were not about transparency in the election expenditure but more about “intimidation and attempts to nullify an elected JNUSU”.