Hindu College Students Move Delhi HC Against Discriminatory Fee, Rules Of Girls’ Hostel [Read Petition]

Aggrieved with the admission procedure and fee structure of girls’ hostel, five students of Delhi University’s Hindu College have moved the Delhi High Court saying the same are not at par with that for boys’ hostel.

In a petition filed through advocate Subhash Chandran KR, the students, one of who is a resident of boys’ hostel, prayed the court to declare the present fee structure as well as the procedure of admission to girl’s hostel of Hindu College being unconstitutional and in violation of the University Grants Commission (Prevention, prohibition and redressal of sexual harassment of women employees and students in higher educational institutions) Regulations, 2015.

They also urged that direction be issued to the college to re-start the admission process to the girl’s hostel with prospectus, proper breakage of fee structure and parity with the fee structure of boy’s hostel and to constitute the hostel committee as prescribed in the Constitution of Staff Council.

The petition said the admission procedure, fee structure, norms and functioning of the girls’ hostel of Hindu College were violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution of India as the fee and other rules for both the hostels are not at par.

It said the “construction of new girl’s hostel was completed last year and the college administrators fixed the annual fee as Rs. 1,22,500/- for academic year 2016-17… at that point of time, annual fee for the men’s hostel was only Rs.47,060 and large number of students protested and a series of events had taken place in the end of 2016 against the discriminatory decision and finally the administration had put the hostel admission on hold”.

“Recently it has come to light that the newly built girls’ hostel of Hindu College again announced the admissions in the last week of July with a discriminatory fee structure as well as rules. There has been no offline public notice calling for applications for admission to the girls’ hostel, unlike that was there in the case of boys’ hostel. The notice on the website of the college was open only for 2 days. No prospectus was issued and the fee structure and a handbook of information, rules and regulations etc., were sent to the students through personal mails after admission. This kind of non-transparency has become a concern among the students,” the petition claimed.

“According to the information from personal mails sent to the students who got admission to hostel, the annual fee is Rs. 91,000, whereas for boys, it is only Rs. 57,900 per year. This stark disparity in the fee structure is a serious violation of fundamental rights and a clear case of gender discrimination on the same premises,” the petition said.

It also said a number of other rules for the hostels for girls and boys were not the same and were, therefore, discriminatory.

Post protests, the admission to girls’ hostel was put on hold and reopened only in July, but the fee row continues.