HC dismisses pleas challenging DU admission process

Delhi High Court today dismissed a batch of pleas by students of various state boards challenging Delhi University's cut-off calculation and seeking a uniform admission process.
"Petitions dismissed," Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said.
The court, however, extended till July 20 the interim relief granted to six students whose admission in Miranda House was cancelled after they were issued identity cards by the college. The court had earlier granted an interim order in favour of the six students by asking the college to keep six seats vacant.
The students, in their pleas, had sought a uniform system of admission, including calculation of cut-offs, saying there was always a difference of 2-3 per cent in the best-of-four marks calculated by each college in any given case of students from other state boards.

They had claimed that the deduction of 10 per cent in case of students from state education boards was unfair.
The students from states like Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana had challenged a DU circular which said all discipline subjects must have at least 70 per cent component as theory, which does not include internal assessment or continuous evaluation.

Under the CBSE pattern of exams, there is 70:30 ratio of theory and practical, while in state education boards the evaluation system is that 20 per cent will be given for internal assessment, 20 per cent for practical and 60 per cent for theory/written exam, their petitions have said.

"Thus even if a student has obtained 100 per cent marks, he will be evaluated only on the 60 per cent written exam, excluding marks obtained in practical test which is an integral part of the exams," the students had said.
Their pleas had also said "there is no uniform system of admission in DU and there is a lot of misunderstanding and confusion about calculation of cut-off marks, especially regarding students from other state boards."
The university, on the other hand, told the court it was not possible to regularise all the state boards and maintained that the eligibility criteria was uniform for all colleges as admissions were carried out by a centralised system.

The colleges too had adopted the arguments put forth by DU and added that they issued their brochures only to highlight courses offered and the seats available, but did not put out any additional eligibility criteria.