Delhi HC dismisses plea by student against 100% DU cut-offs

The court made the observations in the order dismissing the petition, which sought a stay on admissions on the ground that the marking system of state boards was not in uniformity with the scheme approved by the Supreme Court for CBSE.

DISMISSING A plea challenging Delhi University’s admission policy for UG courses, the Delhi High Court Monday said certain state boards may have evolved different manners of assessment of class XII students, leading to some variation in the average results, but that does not render the varsity’s admission criteria “manifestly arbitrary” to require interference of the writ court.

The court made the observations in the order dismissing the petition, which sought a stay on admissions on the ground that the marking system of state boards was not in uniformity with the scheme approved by the Supreme Court for CBSE.

The petition also said while a large number of students of state boards scored 100% marks, only 550 students of CBSE scored above 99%. As a result, cutoffs in admissions for DU colleges have gone up to 100%, said the petition and argued that the policy is inherently discriminatory towards CBSE students. The plea prayed for a scaling mechanism to equalise or moderate marks scored by students of different boards.

However, the court said the petitioner — a CBSE student from Chennai who scored 98% and could not get admission in the course of her choice due to the 100% cut-off — has not been able to demonstrate any practice in previous years which may lend support to her case that the varsity is bound to take into account differences in marks given by different boards while fixing cut-off.

“The petitioner’s grievance with regard to assessment in the present year is also untenable. As a consequence of the pandemic and in a situation where it was impossible to hold examinations, CBSE came out with an alternative scheme of assessment, which was approved by the Supreme Court…,” said Justice Prateek Jalan in the order.

When the petitioner’s counsel argued that a disproportionate number of applicants from Kerala are being admitted in Delhi, the court said it cannot decide the number of students which should be from Delhi or any other place. “I am saying the rationalisation you are giving… is it post hoc rationalisation that ‘because it is leading to X number of students being admitted from one particular board, therefore, it shows there is something wrong in the admission process’,” observed the court.

DU’s counsel argued that the admission process was being followed throughout and it cannot discriminate between different boards: “This was the policy we’ve adopted for all times to come… if there are more students who have scored 100% marks by one particular board, being a central university, we cannot deprive them…”

When the petitioner addressed the court and argued that her right to equality was being violated, it said, “As you grow, sometimes you will have to take the cookie as it crumbles. In some years, a particular board may have better results, a particular board may have less good results. We have to accept that.”

The court told the student that she has got admission into a good college and a good course and “there is no reason to feel disheartened”. The student told the court she has been able to get admission in a BA programme at LSR College but wanted to study BA (Hons) Economics.

On the first day of admissions against the 2nd list, DU received 29,086 applications. Of these, 4,696 admissions were approved.

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