In a notice to the principals of all the colleges, the Delhi University said that five "supernumerary" undergraduate seats will be added to each college and will be called "College University Seats''. The teacher and students of the university have come out in protest against the move calling it discriminatory and said that this would only help increase corruption during admissions.
According to the notice, these seats will be in addition to the existing ones and the university will have the power to suggest candidates for two seats while the rest will be filled based on merit. But that too will be 5 to 10 per cent less than the last cut off of the college. "Such discretion is given to Principals and the University administration not only violates the statutory provisions of the admission policy but seriously compromises the transparency and probity in the admission process. Candidates with lower cut-offs will be allowed admission by the administrators at different levels," read a statement from the Democratic Teachers' Front.
The DU Students' Union and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) are also against this move. A few students from the ABVP and the DUSU met the Registrar, Vikas Gupta to talk to him about why they think this is exclusionary. "We were assured that the Registrar will discuss our concerns with the recommending committee. We have told him that this is non-negotiable and if this is not resolved we will organise a bigger protest in the days to come," said Sidharth Yadav, State Secretary, ABVP Delhi.
The teachers also feared that this quota will just help the rich and influential in the disguise of helping the COVID-hit. "This is a quota for the most privileged section, for those who are close to the corridors of power and will lead to corruption and selling of DU seats. How can a public-funded University announce such a quota? This will lead to many litigations and the University should immediately withdraw it. The DUTA Executive Council in its meeting held yesterday has unanimously condemned the DU notification," said Dr Abha Dev Habib, Treasurer of DU Teachers' Association and Secretary of the DTF.
But this is not the only issue, the Academic Council members have raised an additional issue. They claim that the university cannot make a decision on admission, which is an academic activity, without first running it by the Academic Council. "Admissions fall within the purview of the Academic Council. Any decision related to Admissions has to be compulsorily deliberated upon and ratified by the Academic Council as per Ordinance II. Hence it is dismaying that the University has introduced 5 new supernumerary seats, based on discretion exercised by the College Principals and University," read a letter from four AC members to the Vice-Chancellor. "The Delhi High Court had categorically ruled against such discretionary admissions by the Governing Bodies of the colleges and thus had put an end to the so-called management quota," said the letter while talking about an incident in the 1990s when there was an attempt to introduce extra seats.
