Courts can exercise discretion to grant admission in education under compassionate grounds even when formalities are not strictly fulfilled, especially when the applicant has faced genuine personal difficulties.

JUDGMENT

Rekha Palli, J. (Oral)--The petitioner, who had registered with the School of Open Learning, Delhi University for admission to the B. Com course but has not been granted admission on the ground of not completing the necessary formalities including payment of fees, has approached this Court seeking a direction to the respondent to grant him admission by condoning the delay, if any, in complying with the procedural requirements. It is the petitioner's case that on account of the demise of a close family member as also a technical glitch in the respondent's website, he was not able to pay the fees.

2. The writ petition is opposed by the respondent by contending that while the petitioner had registered with the respondent for seeking admission to B.Com Course, he failed to click on the verification icon at the time of submitting his application, and resultantly, his registration was unsuccessful and he was, therefore, rightly not permitted to pay the fees. Mr. Rupal, learned counsel for the respondent submits that the petitioner, having now missed the bus cannot claim that he should be granted admission on account of any purported technical glitch either at his end or at the end of the University. He further submits that the respondent has already filed an affidavit clearly stating therein that there was no technical glitch in their website and therefore it is evident that the petitioner, on account of his failure to complete the necessary formalities, is trying to shift the blame on the respondents.

3. Having considered the submissions of the learned counsel for the parties, I may at the outset note that the petitioner is not seeking admission in any competitive course where his admission at this stage will affect the rights of any other students. The petitioner is seeking to join the School of Open Learning wherein there is no mandatory requirement of attending classes which in any event, were only being conducted online. It is an admitted position that the admission to the School of Open Learning is dependent on the minimum eligibility criteria prescribed by the respondent from time to time for admission to different courses which minimum criteria, the petitioner fulfilled for admission to the B.Com course.

4. I may now refer to the message received by the petitioner from the respondent university at 11:20 PM on 02.12.2021, based on which the petitioner has contended that he was under a bona fide impression that having been duly registered with the School of Open Learning, his admission thereto was secured and he was only required to pay the fees. The aforesaid message received by the petitioner reads as under-

"VK-SOLDUO

Text Message

Thu, 02 Dec, 11:20 PM

Dear Saarthak Kalra, Thank you for registering with School of Open Learning (SOL), University of Delhi. Your User ID: kalra.deepa@gmail.com and Password: 788122"

5. From a perusal of the above message, it is evident that the petitioner was unambiguously informed that he had successfully registered with the School of Open Learning and was therefore also provided with a user id. Even though a detailed counter-affidavit has been filed by the respondent, the veracity of this message which bears the logo of School of Open Learning has not been denied by it. I therefore see no reason to disregard the petitioner's plea that he always remained under the belief that he had been granted admission in the School of Open Learning.

6. In the light of the aforesaid, I am unable to accept the respondent's plea that the petitioner's registration was not complete. No doubt, the petitioner has not p