New Delhi (Agency): The Delhi High Court has asked for detailed responses from both the Central Government and the University Grants Commission (UGC) regarding a plea against Delhi University’s (DU) admission process for its five-year integrated law courses. Specifically, the university decided to admit students based on the Common Law Admission Test Undergraduate (CLAT-UG) 2023 results and excluded the Common University Entrance Test (CUET).
The court issued this order on August 25 after getting conflicting viewpoints from the Centre and the UGC. The Centre’s counsel stated that the CUET is “not mandatory for central universities” and that these educational institutions have “autonomy in matters of admission.” In contrast, the UGC lawyer insisted that all central universities must use the CUET for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate programs.
The bench, consisting of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula, granted a week’s time to the UGC and the Union of India to file detailed counter-affidavits, clarifying their positions.
The petitioner, Prince Singh, a law student at Campus Law Centre in Delhi University, argued that DU’s decision to rely solely on CLAT-UG results for admissions was “unreasonable and arbitrary.” Singh claimed that this method of admission is in violation of the Right to Equality under Article 14 and the Right to Education under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. His plea stressed that the condition “has no rational nexus” with the objective of admission to the five-year integrated law courses and sought for admissions to be conducted through the CUET-UG 2023.
Earlier this month, the court had already expressed doubts about Delhi University’s decision to use only the CLAT-UG for law course admissions. The court pointed out that when other central universities are conducting admissions based on CUET UG 2023, which was introduced by the Ministry of Education, Delhi University should not consider itself “special.”
The case is set to be heard next on September 12, and it remains to be seen how the Centre and the UGC will align their stances and what impact this will have on future admissions to Delhi University’s law courses.
