Delhi HC Issues Notice On Plea Challenging Domicile Reservation For Delhiites In NLU Delhi [Read Order]

Delhi High Court has issued notice in a plea seeking quashing of the provision giving 50% reservation to students who passed their qualifying exam from the Institute located within the National Capital Territory. The Division Bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Subramonium Prasad has issued notice to the Delhi Government and has asked it to file its reply before the next date of hearing. Filed by Pia Singhh, the petition submits that the reservation policy of respondent University to give 50% reservation to those students who have passed their qualifying degree from Institute situated in Delhi is not only against the constitutional mandate under art 15(3) but is also against all reasonable and logical norms. It is argued that the classification for 50% reservation to students who have passed their qualifying degree from Institute situated in Delhi is far away from intelligible differentia. Also, there seems no object behind this classification which the respondent university seeks to achieve. Furthermore, providing 22% reservation to OBC and 10% reservation to EWS category without increasing the total no. of seats is also unconstitutional and against the mandate of guidelines issued by MHRD. "Since, the petitioner belongs to General/Unreserved category, and is also a permanent resident of Delhi and intends to pursue her LL.M. from NLU Delhi; the provision of 50% reservation to the students of Delhi and also, the provision of 22% OBC & 10% EWS reservations in LL.M. without increasing the number of seats as per MHRD guidelines is adversely affecting her chances of selection and her future career prospects", it is urged. The petition narrates that on 03.01.2007, Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, giving inter alia reservations to Socially and Educationally Backward Classes [SEBCs] also known as Other Backward Classes [OBCs] in Central Educational Institutions came into force. This act was enacted only for central educational institutions but all the state or union territory governments issued notifications to implement OBC reservation in the institution as per the mandate of the Act of 2006. Section-5 of the aforesaid act clearly says that every Central Educational Institution shall, with the prior approval of the appropriate authority, increase the number of seats in a branch of study or faculty over and above its annual permitted strength so that the number of seats, excluding those reserved for the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes, is not less than the number of such seats available or actually filled, whichever be less, for the academic session immediately preceding the date of the coming into force of this Act. All state and Union territory govt. issued guidelines to their educational institutions on the same line of Section 5. Consequently, every educational institution throughout the territory of India which has implemented the 27% OBC reservation increased its seats by 54% so that Unreserved/general category seats are not affected. On 17.01.2019, Ministry of Human Resource Development issued an Office Memorandum wherein it gives direction to Central educational institutions as well as chief secretaries of all state government/UTs to give effect to the provision of 103rd constitutional amendment. Similar direction as mentioned in Section-5 of the aforesaid was given to all educational institutions via this OM and all institutions were permitted to increase seats by 25% so that unreserved category seats are not affected. The petitioner has averred that In the previous academic year i.e. 2019-20 total seats for LL.M was 70. Out of these seats 15% for SC & 7.5% for ST were vertically reserved and 5% for PWD were horizontally reserved. There was no other kind of reservation provided to any class, so number of seats were following: Total seats=70 CATEGORY NO. OF SEATS UNRESERVED 64 (including 3 PWD seats) SC 11 (including 1 PWD seats) ST 5 On 02.03.2020, NLU Delhi has issued its e-prospectus for under graduate & post graduate course for academic year2020- 21. A provision for 50% reservation was made for students of Delhi. Also, provision for 22 % OBC & 10% EWS reservation in addition to 15% SC & 7.5% ST reservation was made for both B.A. LL.B. and LL.M. courses from the academic year 2020-21. "It is apparent by analysing seat matrix of both academic years that in the previous year seats for unreserved category were 64 but in this academic year only 30 seats were notified for the unreserved category. Hence, NLU Delhi has grossly violated the guidelines issued by MHRD and reservation for OBC & EWS were implemented without increasing the seats", it is sought to be contended. Further, it is brought to the attention of...

Delhi HC Issues Notice On Plea Challenging Domicile Reservation For Delhiites In NLU Delhi [Read Order]

Karan Tripathi

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