Petition Against DU’s Decision To Admit Students In Law Course Via CLAT: Delhi High Court Seeks Response Of Centre & UGC
The Delhi High Court in a petition challenging the decision of the Delhi University (DU) to admit students in law course through CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) has sought a response from the Central Government and UGC (University Grants Commission).
The Court ordered this while dealing with a writ petition filed by the petitioner, Prince Singh, a law student at Campus Law Centre in Delhi University against DU.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula directed, “UGC as well as Union of India are granted one weeks’ time to file a detailed counter affidavit. University of Delhi may also file a supplementary counter affidavit, in case they desire to do so.”
The petitioner appeared in person while Senior Advocate Pinky Anand, Advocate Ravikesh K. Sinha, and CGSC Nidhi Raman appeared for the DU, UGC, and Centre respectively.
The CGSC for Union of India stated that the Common University Entrance Test (hereinafter ‘CUET’) is not mandatory for central universities and that they enjoy autonomy in the matter of admission. The reliance was placed on the National Education Policy, 2020, to point out that the institutes of higher education have academic and administration autonomy. The petitioner argued in his petition that the university while issuing the notification, imposed an unreasonable and arbitrary condition that the admission to five-year integrated law courses shall be solely based upon merit in the CLAT-UG 2023 result, which was violative of the Right to Equality under Article 14 and Right to Education under Article 21.
As per the petition, the said condition lacked intelligible differentia and had no rational nexus with the object of admission to the five-year integrated law courses at the Faculty of Law. It sought that admission to the five-year integrated law courses be done through the CUET-UG, 2023.
The High Court in the above regard noted, “Learned counsel for University Grants Commission [hereinafter ‘UGC’] categorically states that it is mandatory for all central universities to adhere to the CUET for admission to UG/ PG programmes. He refers to UGC’s office order dated 21st December, 2022, annexed to the petition as Annexure-B.”
Accordingly, the High Court listed the matter for the next hearing on September 12, 2023.
Cause Title- Prince Singh v. Faculty of Law University of Delhi & Ors.
