Delhi HC seeks Centre, DU stand on plea challenging varsity's new admission norms

The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought response of the Centre and the Delhi University on two separate pleas challenging its new admission criteria for under graduate courses.

Both the petitions have contended that students have been caught unaware as the eligibility criteria for some courses have been changed.

The petitions claimed that change in the eligibility criteria in both the courses -- B.Com (Hons) and BA (Hons) in Economics -- is illegal and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution as it was done arbitrarily, without any prior notice.

While one of the petitions came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Anu Malhotra and Talwant Singh, the other was heard by single judge, Justice Anu Malhotra.

The court issued notices to Delhi University, represented through advocate Mohinder J S Rupal and Ministry of Human Resource Development, represented through advocate Anil Soni, seeking their replies on the pleas and fixed the matter for further hearing on June 14, when another similar petition is also listed.

In the petition filed by Khushi Srivastava, advocate Anupam Srivastava sought quashing of the rule which included mathematics compulsorily as one of the subjects in best of four subjects (BFS) for admission in BA (Hons) in Economics from the academic year 2019-20 as per the 'Bulletin of Information' circulated on May 29 for admission to UG courses.

The other petition filed by Manas Shukla sought direction to the authorities to implement the eligibility criteria followed by the university in the past three consecutive years.

It sought quashing of the eligibility criteria of 2019-20 for admission in BA (Hons) in Economics saying it was issued without giving proper notice to the students appearing in class 12th board exams of 2018-19 prior to completion of the examination process.

Till last year, if a student had 50 per cent in Mathematics, he or she could apply for BA (Hons) in Economics, but this year the subject has been made mandatory for 'Best of Four', which means Mathematics has to be part of the top four subjects, aggregate of which will be considered for the admission, the pleas have said.

Similarly, B.Com (Hons) required a student to have passed Mathematics/Business Mathematics with an aggregate of 45 per cent marks as a mandatory requirement, they said.

This year, the criteria have been tweaked mandating that a student should have 50 per cent or more marks in Mathematics/Business Mathematics and an aggregate of 60 per cent with number of new conditionalities attached, the petitions have also said.

Both the petitions have sought quashing of the amended eligibility criteria and that students be allowed to apply as per the earlier rules.

According to news reports, members of the Academic and Executive councils of the Delhi University had recently written to the vice-chancellor to reverse the changes brought in the eligibility criteria for various courses, describing them as "arbitrary" and "unwarranted".

The letter had urged the vice-chancellor to restore the earlier criteria for this academic session on an "urgent basis".