Procedural adherence in university admissions is critical; applicants must comply with established rules to maintain application integrity and facilitate fair reservations.

JUDGMENT

Prateek Jalan, J. (Oral)

The proceedings in the matter have been conducted through video conferencing.

1. The petitioners were aspirants for admission to the under-graduate courses in University of Delhi ["the University"]. They have approached this Court with the grievance that they were not permitted to edit the category in which they sought to apply during the "Special Drive for Admission" held by the University in December, 2020 ["Special Drive"].

2. The petitioners applied for admission during the general admission process in August, 2020, in the General Category. They claim that they were entitled to reservation under various special categories [petitioner nos. 1 & 4 in the Economically Weaker Sections category; petitioner nos. 2 & 5 in Persons with Disabilities category; and petitioner no. 3 in the Schedule Tribes category]. However, they applied in the `General Category' for want of the necessary certificates to establish their entitlement to the reservations in question. The petitioners were unfortunately unable to secure admission during the general admission process.

3. The University thereafter issued a notice on 12.12.2020, for a Special Drive for merit based under-graduate admissions in various reserved categories. Participation in the said Special Drive was open only to candidates in the Schedule Caste/Schedule Tribe/Other Backward Classes/Economically Weaker Sections/Persons with Disability/Kashmiri Migrants/Sikh Minority categories. The persons who could not seek admission earlier or had cancelled their admission in any of the colleges' departments during any of the preceding cut-offs, and were therefore not admitted, were considered under the Special Drive. The contention of the petitioners is that they were in possession of the required certificates by the time the Special Drive was conducted but were not permitted to edit the category under which they had applied, and therefore could not avail of the Special Drive at all.

4. I have heard Mr. Abhinav Sharma, learned counsel, on behalf of the petitioners, and Mr. Amit Bansal, learned Standing Counsel, on behalf of the University.

5. It has been pointed out in the counter affidavit filed by the University that all candidates were informed from the very beginning of the admission process that editing in the category of application would not be permitted. Mr. Bansal has drawn my attention to the notice dated 15.07.2020 and the press release dated 25.07.2020, which have been annexed to the petition as Annexures A-3 and A-5 respectively. In both the aforesaid notices, the University has clarified the fields in the application in which later editing would be permitted. It is clear from both these notices that no changes were to be permitted in the category of application.

6. Further, Mr. Bansal points out that in the Bulletin of Information for Admission to Under-Graduate Courses (2020-21) ["Information Bulletin"], the University had contemplated the concern of candidates who may not be in possession of the required category certificates at the time of application. To accommodate the concerns of such students, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic when they may have found it more difficult to obtain the certificates, the University specifically provided as follows:

"If the applicant does not have their SC or ST caste/tribe certificate at the time of registration/applying they may upload the acknowledgement slip of the SC or ST caste/tribe certificate application. However, at the time of admission, the applicant will have to produce the valid original SC or ST caste/tribe certificate."

7. The Information Bulletin also contains a list of documents required at the time of registration. The following note was appended to the list:

"If the applicants do not have recent/valid EWS/OBC (Non-Creamy Layer)/SC or ST Caste/Tribe certificate at the time of Registration, the applicant may upload the acknowledgement slip of application for the c