IMPORTANT POINT
Educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people are required to be promoted with greater care.

JUDGMENT

P. Sathasivam, J.—

1. Avinash Singh Bagri and five others have filed Writ Petition (C) No. 535 of 2008 in this Court under Article 32 of the Constitution of India airing their grievance that most of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students who have been given admission in IIT-Delhi are being denied the right to pursue their studies by the respondent-Institution on the ground of poor performance and such students are being expelled and their admissions are being cancelled after one year or two years.

2. Ravindra Kumar Ravi and two others who have been similarly placed and expelled by IIT- Delhi by similar orders dated 21.05.2008 and 02.06.2008 filed a separate writ petition, i.e., Writ Petition (C) No. 10 of 2009 highlighting their similar grievance before this Court.

3. The above-said petitioners belong to reserved categories (SC/ST/OBC). They were the students of IIT-Delhi and pursuing the B.Tech. Course. They got admission in IIT Delhi through All India Joint Entrance Test in the year 2004-2005. These petitioners have been expelled from the B.Tech Course as they could not make the required average credits in their second year.

4. It is the case of the petitioners that in spite of providing reservation in higher education like Medical and Engineering streams, no coaching or any other facilities are provided to SC/ST/OBC candidates to enable them to compete with other general category students, as a result of which, more than 90% SC/ST/OBC students are dropped out from these higher courses in first year or second year. As a result of which the reserved seats in higher courses are lying vacant and unfilled. In the year 2008, about 85% reserved seats remained unfilled in IITs. For the last ten years, in the Courses at IITs, about 90% SC/ST/OBC students are either dropped out or were declared fail in the first year or in the second year. The reservation made by the Central Government/State Governments becomes redundant as no infrastructure is provided to SC/ST/OBC candidates to enable them to acquire bench marks. The duration of B.Tech Course is 4-5 years which is divided into 8/10 semesters depending upon the stream. The said durations are extendable for a further period of two more years to enable the students to pass out the course.

5. The academic performance of a student is monitored at the end of each semester by the Standing Review Committee (SRC) of the Senate. At the end of each semester, if a student fails to satisfy the minimum academic criteria laid down for continuation as a student, the SRC would recommend the termination of registration of the student. According to the criteria, a student in general category must secure at least 20 credits and a student in SC/ST/OBC category must secure at least 16 credits at the end of the 2nd semester failing which his/her registration would be terminated. In the second year, a student in general category must secure at least 50 credits while SC/ST/OBC category student must secure 46 credits at the end of 4th semester failing which his/her registration would be terminated. A student’s registration may be terminated at the end of the 3 rd year, 4th year or 5th year if he/she fails to earn at least 84, 120 or 156 credits respectively.

6. Unlike in Delhi, in the other IITs like Kharagpur, Bombay, Chennai, Guwahati and Roorkee, if a student fails to achieve the required average credits in the first year or second year, he/she is not expelled from the institute. For such students, there is a programme known as “Slow Track Programme”. If a student clears a subject, he is awarded with full credits, assigned to the subject. Besides, the student is also awarded with marks for each subject according to the method mentioned in the guidelines issued by the concerned IITs. Each student is also awarded with a grading. Apart from this, every student is also awarded with Semester Grade Point Average (SGPA) and at the end of the 4/5 years course before granting the degree of B.T