Delhi HC Constitutes A Committee To Finalise The Process of Issuing Digital Degree Certificate To Students [Read Order]

The said committee will have senior officials from the Delhi High Court's IT Team, a member from National e-Governance Division (NeGD) of the Ministry of Electronics & IT, Joint Director of DU's Computer Centre, and two members from Digilocker.

The Single Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh has further directed the said committee to finalise the following:

1. The online link on the DU portal where the students can put in applications for issuance of their digital degree certificates. Alternatively, an e-mail address shall be provided where the Petitioners and similarly placed candidates can write an e-mail to obtain their degree certificates
2. The timeline after receipt of the said email for verification and issuance of the degree certificate with the digital signature;
3. Template for the degree certificate to be issued by email;
4. Official to be responsible for affixing the digital signature and issuance of the same;
5. A sample degree certificate in favour of one of the Petitioners, duly signed with the digital signature, shall also be generated;
6. Timelines for transmission of past data to Digilocker from DU;
7. Timelines for transmission of data periodically to Digilocker so that students can easily access their certificates, transcripts, marksheets, awards etc.

The order has come in a plea moved by medical graduates who are awaiting their degree certificates since 2018.

The said graduates need their degree certificates by August 15 to get their registrations on the ECFMG platform in order to be able to sit in the

USMLE examination for post graduate studies in the US.

In the previous hearing, the court had directed the Delhi University to come up with a mechanism to provide digital degree certificates to students having digital signatures.

Highly dissatisfied with the mechanism placed before the court by the University, the court noted that:

'Despite sufficient time being made available, it is clear that DU is not taking adequate steps to set up the process for issuance of digital degree

certificates. There is a completely callous attitude being reflected towards the plight of students. A request is made for adjourning the matter for

tomorrow to place a better scheme on record. This Court feels that the same would be completely futile as considerable time has already lapsed without any positive steps being taken by the DU.'

The court further noted that the procedure put forward by DU for obtaining degree certificates is too complicated and makes it difficult for students to obtain their degrees. The court said:

'Obtaining a degree, which should have been a cause of celebration, has been turned into a

complete nightmare for all these doctors who ought to have been busy rendering medical services during the pandemic. Despite the Court's best effort, DU is not placing a proper protocol on record.'

Therefore, the court has constituted a committee and entrusted it with powers to come up with a mechanism to provide digital degree certificates to students. The status report in this regard has to be submitted by August 07.

The Petitioners in this case are being represented by Mr Sarthak Maggon.

Case Title: Akshita Khosla v. University of Delhi

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