The High Court has ordered the University of Delhi to admit a candidate in the 2023-24 academic year who challenged the cancellation of his assigned seat at DU’s Kirori Mal College for 2022-23 on the grounds that he did not meet certain criteria as per the university newsletter. of information.
While reiterating that education matters should be left in the hands of educators, on March 6 a single court under Judge Vikas Mahajan said: “Given the circumstances, the grounds on which the cancellation of the position assigned to the petitioner is sought , is supported by the university, is wrong, so the decision of the university to cancel the vacancy assigned to the petitioner is likely to be annulled, and it is so ordered.
The HC was listening to the statement of Ravindra Bishnoi who stated that the seat assigned to him in BA (Hons) Geography at Kirori Mal College on 19 Oct 2022 was canceled on 21 Oct 2022 by Delhi University erroneously for “non-compliance with subject mapping criteria”.
However, the HC indicated that the admission schedule in educational institutions must be met. The HC noted that there was a delay by Bishnoi in approaching the court (one month, seven days after his seat was cancelled) which led to the conclusion of the admission process, possibly even before the submission of his declaration of culpability. The court said that no exceptional circumstances justify his being admitted in the 2022-23 academic year.
The High Court said it cannot be “indifferent” to the untenable action of the university that “imposed litigation” on Bishnoi. “Therefore, taking into account that the place assigned to the petitioner was arbitrarily and erroneously canceled by the university in breach of the terms and conditions stipulated in the information bulletin through no fault of the petitioner, and also considering that the petitioner is a deserving and meritorious student who made it to the merit list in round 1 of the advising, the University of Delhi is directed to admit the petitioner in the next academic year for BA (Hons) Geography at the same institute, Kirori Mal College,” the HC said.
Candidates running for the CUET were advised by the National Testing Agency in March last year to consult the information bulletin for admission to undergraduate programs of the central universities desired for admission to undergraduate programs.
A humanities student from Rajasthan who scored 86.60% on his Class XII board, Bishnoi had opted for two languages English and Hindi, and had additionally opted for Geography/Geology, History and Political Science as per the requirements set out in the DU newsletter. . Based on his qualifications in CUET (UG) 2022, he was assigned a seat in BA (Hons) Geography at Kirori Mal College in Round 1 of Common Seat Assignment System on October 19, 2022. Bishnoi accepted the same on October 20. October, but the next day, said assignment was canceled due to “non-compliance with thematic mapping criteria”.
The court noted that Bishnoi first entered the guilty plea on November 27, 2022, removed the objections, and the guilty plea was entered on November 29, 2022, and heard on November 30, 2022, where a notice to the defendants. DU took the position that Bishnoi opted to appear in a History paper at CUET that he did not study on his Class XII board and according to the Information Bulletin, “a candidate is required to appear only in those papers in CUET that were studied in Class XIII”.
Bishnoi argued that since English literature was not mentioned in the list of 27 domain-specific subjects, he had opted for history as one of the CUET exam subjects, which was closely related to English literature. Clause 4 was called to the court’s attention under the heading ‘Important Points’ in the DU Information Bulletin, which states: “In the event that the subject studied in Class XII is not mentioned in the CUET, the candidate must appear in the subject that is similar / closely related to the subject that has been studied in Class XII”.
It was argued that Bishnoi had met the Common Minimum Eligibility as well as the Program Specific Eligibility prescribed in the Information Bulletin urged that the cancellation of the seat assigned to him is “wrong in law”. DU claimed that the admissions process had been concluded, thus the appeal had become unsuccessful over time.
The court noted that DU did not clarify its position with respect to Clause 4 of the ‘Important Points’ in the bulletin on which Bishnoi relied and its counter-affidavit is “notoriously silent as to whether the subject English Literature studied by the petitioner in Class XII it is closely related to the History subject” in which the Bishnoi chose to appear.