Delhi high court sets aside DU’s latest criteria for UG admissions

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Friday set aside Delhi University’s recently amended eligibility criterion for admissions to a few undergraduate courses and allowed candidates to apply on the basis of last year’s norms.
It has also directed DU to extend its last date for the online registration from June 14 to June 22, which will require the university to shift its first cutoff date from June 20.There was, however, no response from DU on any new date.
The amendment required candidates to include mathematics in their best-of-four calculations for a few courses, including BCom (Hons) and BA (Hons) economics.
Quashing the amendment, a bench of Justices Anu Malhotra and Talwant Singh said, “There is no dispute that you (DU) have to be in tune with the times. Nothing prevents you from improving education standards. No one is saying your decision is not right, but your timing may not be right.” DU can carry out any amendment in the eligibility criteria by giving a six-month notice before the admissions, it added.
The amendment was challenged by advocates Charanpal Singh Bagri, who confirmed the court decision, and Anupam Srivastava. They had called the change “arbitrary” and “indifferent”.
Srivastava, on behalf of his daughter Khushi, a DU aspirant, had argued that if a student had 50% in mathematics, she could apply for BA (H) in economics last year; but this year’s rule had made mathematics the subject mandatory in the best of four for it. “By introduction of this arbitral change in the merit-based admission, the petitioner will suffer grave loss of not securing a seat in one of the prime institutions of the respondent university. The petitioner has secured a meritorious percentage of 98.75 in her best of four if mathematics is not included,” he argued, adding that the change would bring it down to 97.75%.
Until last year, a candidate for BCom (H) was required to pass mathematics or business mathematics with an aggregate of 45% marks in the qualifying examination. However, the amendment made it 50% or more in mathematics or business mathematics with an aggregate of 60% or more.
DU had said the new norms were introduced after holding discussions with the stakeholders and the experts in the field.