Governor asked to look into Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University poll

AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court has asked Maharashtra governor, an officio chancellor of the state universities, to look into the grievances related to senate polls for the graduate category of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu) in accordance with the law.
The poll in question was challenged on a technical ground — that the winning candidate had not submitted a Non-Creamy Layer certificate along with his nomination form.
The winning candidate was elected on a seat reserved for DT (VJ)/NT category for polls held as per the Maharashtra Universities Act, 2016.
While petitioner Hanumant Gutte had already raised the issue with the office of chancellor, the two-member bench of justices Mangesh Patil and S V Gangapurwala has requested the chancellor to decide the matter expeditiously. The Bamu authorities and the government pleader, have been asked by the court to communicate the court order to the office of the Chancellor.
As per the election programme, the list of validly contesting candidates was published by Bamu registrar, who was the ex-officio returning officer on November 19, 2017. The polls in question were held on December 4, 2017. Total of five candidates, including the petitioner, were in the race for the polls.
Advocate Shirish Kamble, who was representing the petitioner, said the issue of non-submission of the Non-Creamy Layer certificate was brought to the notice of the Bamu authorities during early stages. “The university authorities ignored our objection and released the list of contesting candidate. Later, we approached the office of the chancellor but in vain, following which we went to the court. With legal intervention, now we hope that the matter is resolved as early as possible,” he said.
During one of the hearings in the case on September 3 last year, the court had asked the assistant government pleader to take instructions about the status of the application of the petitioner with the office of the chancellor and the court was told that no instructions were received back then.
The petitioner argued their legal suite on the court’s verdict in the case of Aishwarya Patil Vs State of Maharashtra, in which it was ruled that the candidates cannot take benefits of reserved seat until they submit the Non-Creamy Layer Certificate.
Gutte said it was unfortunate that his objection has been ignored for over two years after the election “We had raised objection with the office of chancellor on May 22, 2018, but did not receive any response. We hope that the office of chancellor takes steps to ensure justice,” he said.