The Muslim Students Federation (MSF) at the University of Delhi has claimed that there were irregularities in the admissions process for the LLB and postgraduate programmes in 2022.
According to the students, the seat allocation did not follow the reservation guidelines established by the Supreme Court. They assert that the published admission list excluded students from reserved categories (SC/ST/OBC) who had scored above the cut-off for the general category. "I cleared the general cut-off with 265 marks but I wasn't considered for the unreserved quota. This means that the opportunity of other OBC students is getting deprived," said Sinan Hussain Mustafa, who graduated from the University this year.
The MSF filed a petition in the Delhi High Court pointing out this discrepancy. "The grievance of the petitioner in the present petition is that the seat matrix adopted by the respondent/University is arbitrary and unlawful, in as much as, the candidates belonging to the reserved categories (OBC, SC and ST), who have secured more marks than the candidates figuring in the merit list of the General Category, have not been moved to the General Category, based on their own merit," the petition, which EdexLive has a copy of, stated. In response to the petition, the court on December 21 directed Delhi University to file its affidavit within two weeks.
Students' allegations
As per students' allegations, some SC/ST/OBC students were placed in the OBC non-creamy layer admission category, while students from the unreserved category with lower marks were placed on the unreserved category admission list. "In the published admission list, the last candidate in the unreserved category has obtained 257 marks and has a combined rank of 98. However, even the first candidate in the OBC category who obtained 325 marks and a combined rank of 30 wasn't placed in the unreserved admission category," the federation stated in a letter addressed to MP ET Mohammed Basheer.
As a result, around 170 students in the OBC category weren't included in the unreserved category even though they scored more than 257 marks - which is the cut-off for the unreserved category, the students said. They further alleged a similar discrepancy was observed in the admission lists for SC and ST candidates.
The Supreme Court judgment
The top court in April this year held that the reserved category candidates securing higher marks than the last of the General Category candidates are entitled to get a seat/post in the General Category, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
The Supreme Court was dealing with an appeal by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) against an order of the Rajasthan High Court which had held that the selection of the two reserved category candidates was required to be adjusted against the general category since they had scored more than the last of the general category candidates appointed, according to Bar & Bench.
The candidates belonging to reserved categories can as well stake claim to seats in unreserved categories if their merit and position in the merit list entitles them to do so, the bench comprising Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna observed, as per the TNIE report.
Students claimed that the university violated the aforementioned judgment. "In effect, around 200 reserved candidates (OBC-170, SC-24, ST-4) who were entitled to be included in the unreserved admission category on the virtue of their higher marks, failed to appear in the UR admission list," the students said. Moreover, had these candidates been included in the admission list, an additional 200 students could have been accommodated in the constitutionally mandated reserved category quota of 27 percent, they stated in the letter.
"The Law Faculty of DU is a premier institute which will produce future lawyers, judges and sentinels of law guarding our rights. If the constitutional values and rights of minorities aren't being protected even here, our nation has a bleak future," said Sinan.
Further, MSF DU President Bathool opines that the university authorities appear to be actively prejudiced against the reserved groups.She questioned the exclusion of meritorious reserved category students from the Unreserved category despite having strong claims to it, as per a statement by the federation.
