Today, August 4, the Delhi High Court said candidates can apply both offline and online for admission against the management quota seats at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU). A bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna clarified the seats already filled under the management quota by colleges for the academic session 2022-23 shall not be disturbed, and directed the authorities to issue necessary instructions for compliance with its order within two weeks, as stated in a report by PTI.
The court's decision came on an appeal by Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, a college affiliated with GGSIPU, against a single judge order refusing to interfere with the Delhi government's circulars regulating admissions against management seats. The circulars introduced several measures for ensuring fairness and transparency in the admission process as they envisaged the creation of an online portal to display branch-wise and college-wise the seats available under the management quota.
Additionally, it also required the submission of applications by candidates online as well as online publication of the merit list and so on. The appellant told the court the procedure to fill management quota vacancies through offline mode has been continuing for the last 25 years as stipulated in The Delhi Professional Colleges or Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee, Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Non-Exploitative Fee and Other Measures to Ensure Equity and Excellence) Act, 2007 and its corresponding rules.
Further, the petitioner said it has no objection to filling up the management quota vacancies by online mode but as per the law, the direction has to be issued by the lieutenant governor of Delhi and not by the Delhi government. The court said it concurred with the appellant that the circular was not by the competent authority - the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.
"We find that to ensure fair mechanism to fulfil the Management Quota seats available under different branches of private self funded institutions, affiliated to respondent No.3- University, fair procedure has to be adopted," it said. "We hereby dispose of the present appeal upholding the following directions notified in the circular dated 22.09.2022 with partial modification that besides online mode, the candidates shall also be eligible to apply in offline mode for Management Quota seats," the court ordered.
The court asked the Delhi government and GGSIPU to issue necessary orders for compliance within two weeks. "It is made clear that these directions shall cease to follow for the session 2022-23 and the seats already filled till 2022-23 under the Management Quota by colleges for different branches shall not be disturbed," the court said.
Further, the court asked GGSIP University to create an online portal to display branch-wise and college-wise seats available under the management quota, adding that prospective students can then apply online as well as offline. Additionally, it also stated that the colleges shall display the list of aspirant admission seekers on the online portal as well as on the notice board of the college, and also prepare a common merit list of candidates who have applied through online and offline processes, as stated in a report by PTI.
The college-wise merit list shall be published online, the court said. While rejecting petitions by several private institutions against the circulars, the single had said although "backdoor entry" into professional courses is not unknown, institutions are under an obligation to maintain merit and transparency, and the selection of students should not be based on extraneous factors such as personal connections, wealth or social status.
