The Jawaharlal Nehru University administration has stated that the bills submitted by the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) is not in the proper format as they did not mention the GST numbers. The statement has been called as an act of ‘intimidation’ and ‘a dangerous precedent’ by the president of JNUSU N Sai Balaji.
As per Balaji, the bills were submitted in similar format, as was for the last two years, and back then the administration never objected. In a letter the Dean of Students Umesh Kadam said, “It is informed that the bills submitted are not in accordance with Clause 6.6.2 of the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations (LCR) —‘each candidate shall, within two weeks of the declaration of the result, submit complete and audited accounts to the college/ university authorities’…”, he further said, “It is further informed that each candidate is required to submit original bills bearing GST number and to be self-attested by each candidate, failing which Clause 6.6.3 will be applied — ‘election of candidate will be nullified in the event of any non-compliance or… any excessive expenditure”.
The JNUSU said had submitted the bills along with a cover letter that was signed by 19 candidates. In their statement they said, “Since all of us ran a combined campaign, the expenses were collectively incurred. The total expenses incurred were Rs 92,634”.