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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
PRATEEK JALAN, J.
Adil Sajeer Ansari - Petitioner
Versus
University of Delhi & Anr - Respondents
W.P.(C) 5392 of 2020 & CM APPLs. 19431 of 2020, 34199 of 2020
Decided On : 23-04-2021
Delhi University Act, 1922 - Sections 17 and 32 - Application - Admission to MBA - Typographical error - Incorrect e-mail address - Petitioner appeared for Common Admission Test (CAT), and applied for admission to MBA (IB) programme in Department of Commerce, Faculty of Commerce and Business, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, for academic year - He is a resident and Government had issued directives for a curfew in State over weekends - As no movement was permitted, he faced some difficulty in arranging all necessary documents and scanning them - On petitioner successfully submitted all his documents on “mbaadmission@commerce.du.ac.in”, not realizing that it was in fact, an incorrect e-mail address - Later in day on it came to knowledge of petitioner from various other similarly placed candidates that, after successful submission of the documents, a payment link was sent to eligible candidates - Petitioner raised a query to University [on the correct e-mail address - mbadmission@commerce.du.ac.in] vide e-mail dated.
Finding of the Court: Court of view that appropriate course would be to direct University to admit petitioner in MBA (International Business) Programme in year - Mistake made by petitioner was condonable by University, particularly in view of fact that he had followed up matter with due diligence and rectified mistake before University had commenced processing admissions and before any third-party rights had intervened - He also approached this Court with alacrity - Passage of time makes it difficult to require University to grant him admission for year - Having regard to fact that he did admittedly commit a typographical error, which led to impugned decision of University, Court do not also consider it a fit case for grant of compensation to petitioner for year lost - Petition is disposed of by setting aside decision of Sub-Committee dated and directing University to grant admission to petitioner for concerned course for academic year.
Result : Petition disposed of
JUDGMENT :
1. The present writ petition concerns the petitioner’s application for admission to the MBA (International Business/Human Resource Development) Programme [hereinafter, “MBA (IB)”] in the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi [hereinafter, “the University”] in the academic year 2020-21.
Facts
2. The petitioner appeared for the Common Admission Test (CAT), and applied for admission to the MBA (IB) programme in the Department of Commerce, Faculty of Commerce and Business, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, for the academic year 2020-21. He was provisionally selected in the OBC Category in the 8th Admission List.
3. This was communicated to the petitioner by an e-mail dated 02.08.2020, which further required submission of documents by email to the e-mail address “mbadmission@commerce.du.ac.in”. The said communication also stipulated a deadline with regard to the submission of the documents, which was as follows:
…..
You are required to send your documents during the period from: 2nd August, 2020 to 4th August, 2020 between 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM(Documents sent after the stipulated time shall not be considered without any further communication).”
4. It is the petitioner’s case that he is a resident of Uttar Pradesh and the Government of Uttar Pradesh had issued directives for a curfew in the State over the weekends. As no movement was permitted, he faced some difficulty in arranging all the necessary documents and scanning them. However, on 04.08.2020 at 10:58 AM, the petitioner successfully submitted all his documents on “mbaadmission@commerce.du.ac.in”, not realizing that it was, in fact, an incorrect e-mail address.
5. Later in the day on 04.08.2020, it came to the knowledge of the petitioner from various other similarly placed candidates that, after successful submission of the documents, a payment link was sent to the eligible candidates. The petitioner raised a query to the University [on the correct e-mail address - mbadmission@commerce.du.ac.in] vide e-mail dated 04.08.2020 at 7:59 PM, stating that he has mailed the necessary documents but had not received the payment link. He received the following response from the University on 04.08.2020 at 8:43 PM:
Also , you are requested to send us proof that you have send the required documents on this email ID for us to take up the matter
Warm Regards
MBA Admissions Team
Department of Commerce
Faculty of Commerce and Business
University of Delhi
Delhi
[Quoted text hidden]”
6. The petitioner thus discovered that the documents submitted by him were inadvertently sent to an incorrect e-mail address, which differed from the one provided by the University in the communication of 02.08.2020. At 9:15 PM on the same day, he sent an e-mail to the University at the correct e-mail address, and attached all his scanned documents.
7. The petitioner again wrote to the University on 04.08.2020 at 9:19 PM, apologizing for his mistake and attaching with the e-mail, a screenshot of the earlier email, as required by the University.
8. Further to the above, on 05.08.2020 at 12:21 PM, the petitioner explained his case to the University and requested for a payment link. The said communication is reproduced as follows:
We have a weekend lockdown here in U.P..I received the mail on 2nd of Aug,which was Sunday, so I couldn’t get the documents scanned that day.
Next day being Rakshabandan, most of the shops were closed, so i had to travel to a distant cyber cafe to get the documents scanned. Amongst all this hassle, i ended up sending the documents to a wrong mail address(just a minor difference in spelling).
I have attached the proof in the previous mail.
I request you to kindly accept my apology & forward me the payment link as the past few days have been quite hectic & me and my parents are losing their sleep over
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