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The Delhi High Court today issued notice in a plea seeking directions to Jawaharlal Nehru  University (JNU) to reconsider its decision to allocate all PhD seats in the seven Centres to the Junior Research Fellowship category candidates.

The division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing a plea filed by Student Federation of India unit of the JNU who submitted that the university has left no seats for the non JRF category students and have allotted all the seats to the JRF candidates for the session 2021-2022.

Advocate Ashok Aggarwal appearing for the petitioners argued that the University had turned deaf ears to their request and the petitioners had nothing against the JRF candidates but their prayer was only to allocate seats to the non-JRF candidates as well.

He further submitted that two UGC-NET-JRF examinations have not taken place due to COVID-19 and those who could have appeared in the JRF examination could not appear for the same. Hence the students are dependent upon the entrance examination only but as the entrance examination is not being conducted by JNU and all seats have been allotted to JRF candidates, such candidates are left with no option at all to apply for PhD seats in these seven Centres.

The bench directed Advocate Monika Arora appearing for JNU to seek instructions on the issue and listed the matter for next hearing on August 2.

The petitioners have submitted that earlier the PhD seats were filled by both JRF and non JRF candidates "But in the current academic year 2021-22, the respondent JNU illegally, arbitrarily, unconstitutionally through its impugned e-prospectus decided to fill-up all (100 per cent) PhD seats through JRF category candidates in seven Centres."

Case Title: Students Federation Of India-Jawaharlal Nehru University Unit vs Jawaharlal Nehru University