High Court of Delhi was dealing with the petition assailing the respondents’ action in not considering his candidature in the Children/Widows of Personnel of the Armed Forces (CW) category for admission to the LLB course at the respondent no.1 University for the academic year 2021-22.
Brief Facts:
The petitioner had applied as a Scheduled Caste (SC) category candidate for admission in the LLB course in July, 2021 and had also appeared in its entrance examination held on 29.09.2021 under the said reserved category. However, it is only after the result was declared in November, 2021 that he realised that he was not likely to make it to the merit list for admission as a SC candidate and therefore, decided to make a representation to the respondent on 11.11.2021 for considering his case under the CW category. In his representation, the petitioner stated that he was possessing all the necessary documents for admission in the CW category. Upon receiving no reply to his representation, the petitioner claims to have visited the office of the respondent and thereafter submitted another representation on 18.01.2022, which also remained unanswered. Then the petitioner approached the Court in the last week of February, 2022 seeking a direction to the respondent to consider his candidature for admission to the LLB course in the CW category.
Respondent’s Contention:
Learned Counsel for the respondent vehemently opposes the petition on the ground that the petitioner, having chosen to apply in the SC category for admission, could not be subsequently allowed to change his category. He contended that the University deals with admissions of about 3 lakh students in every academic year, and therefore, cannot permit candidates to change their categories after the filling of the application form. He, therefore, contended that if a change in category were to be permitted after the filling of the admission forms or after declaration of the entrance examination results, the same would affect the entire basis of the allotment of the seats and lead to utter chaos in the admission process.
HC’s Observations:
After hearing both the sides Court stated that the petitioner having knowingly chosen to apply under the reserved category of Scheduled Cast (SC), cannot now be permitted to contend that he had mistakenly failed to mention that he was a CW category candidate. In fact, it appears that the petitioner took his chance as a SC candidate while applying for admission, and it is only when he realised that he would not be able to secure admission in the said category, that he now wants to be considered under the CW category.
HC stated that any such change of category after declaration of the results of the entrance examination would have far reaching repercussions on the entire admission process and would cause grave prejudice to the other students who had applied in the right categories. HC denied the case upon which the petitioner relied ie. Anuj Pratap Singh v. Union Public Service Commission and Anr, where the Court was dealing with a situation where a candidate had, by mistake, entered his date of birth as 31.03.1991 instead of 30.03.1991 and therefore, the Court had permitted him to carry out the said correction.
HC Held:
After evaluating submissions made by both the parties the Court held that “the present case is evidently not one of mistakes, but a case where a candidate, after having applied for admission in one reserved candidate is now seeking to change his category to another reserved category, which cannot be said to be a case of an inadvertent mistake. I am, therefore, unable to agree with the petitioner that it was a simple case of correction of a mistake. On the other hand, the sequence of events clearly shows that it was a case of a conscious change of category at a belated stage.”
Case Title: Abhishesh Chaudhary v. Delhi University and Anr.
Bench: Hon'ble Ms. Justice Rekha Palli
Citation: W.P.(C) 3487/2022 & CM APPL. 10297/2022 -Int. dir.
Decided on: 23rd March, 2022
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