Candidate cannot be permitted to change category after declaration of results; Reiterates Delhi HC

  • Pankaj Bajpai
  • 07:33 PM, 12 Apr 2021

Read Time: 05 minutes

The Delhi High Court Single Bench Justice Prateek Jalan refuses to interfere under Article 226 of the Constitution and ruled that a candidate cannot be permitted to change the category after the results have been declared.

The court said that the merit position and cut-offs are determined category-wise. To permit a candidate to change the category at such a belated stage would lead to potential disruption in the admissions of those who have been granted admission, and also disturb the merit position of all other candidates in both the categories. Such a consequence would ultimately make it difficult to conclude the admissions process.

The court observed that the petitioner admittedly applied in the general category. At the time of application, and in fact even when the results of the entrance test were declared, the petitioner did not have an EWS certificate. In fact, she applied for an EWS certificate only after the results of the entrance test had already been declared and she found that she was unable to secure admission on the basis of her marks in the unreserved category.

The certificate upon which the petitioner relies to establish that she was a EWS candidate even at the time of application, is a certificate issued in the name of her father and, on its own terms, was valid only for a period of three years from the date of its issue. The said certificate, therefore, could not further the case of the petitioner for admission in the 2020-2021 session in any manner.

The conditions of the Prospectus, which make it clear that the candidates would not be entitled to change their status from the general to reserved category, would bind the petitioner.

The court found that the Petitioner applied in the general category, and waited for the result to be declared before she even made an application for issuance of a EWS certificate by the State of Uttar Pradesh.

“The contention of the petitioner that she was unable to apply for the EWS certificate at the appropriate time in view of the COVID-19 pandemic is not borne out by any contemporaneous correspondence with the University. She did not raise any such grievance at all with the University prior to Dec 02, 2020” said the Court.

The petitioner was an applicant for admission to the LL.B. Course in Delhi University. She seeks an order directing the Delhi University to consider her candidature for admission in the Economically Weaker Sections quota.

Case Title: Shalu Maan v. Dean, Faculty of Law, Delhi University