Delhi High Court
Anupam & Ors. vs University Of Delhi Through Its ... on 13 August, 2020
SINDHU KRISHNAKUMAR
13.08.2020 22:33
$~17
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Date of Decision: 13th August, 2020
+ W.P. (C) 3946/2020
ANUPAM & ORS. ..... Petitioners
Through: Mr. Akash Sinha, Mr. Shubham
Saket, Ms. Kanika Roy, Mr. Indrajeet
Singh and Mr. Gaurav Prakash,
Advocates.
Mr. Shivanker Sharma Advocates for
the intervenors
versus
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI THROUGH ITS
REGISTRAR & ORS. ..... Respondents
Through: Mr. Apoorv Kurup, Ms. Nidhi Mittal
and Mr. Siddharth Nigotia, Advocates
for UGC.
Ms. Sunieta Ojha, Advocate for UOI.
Mr. B. B. Gupta, Senior Advocate
with Mr. Kamal Gupta, Advocate -
Members of the Grievance Redressal
Committee.
CORAM:
JUSTICE PRATHIBA M. SINGH
Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)
1. This hearing has been done by video conferencing.
CM APPL.18999/2020 (for exemption)
2. This is an application seeking exemption from filing court fee and
duly attested affidavits. Considering that the application is filed by members
of the Grievance Redressal committee appointed by this Court, filing of
affidavits and court fee is waived. Application is disposed of.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed
By:PRATHIBA M SINGH
Signing Date:13.08.2020 22:08
CM APPL.18998/2020 (for directions)
3. This matter has been listed upon urgent mentioning in the typed
supplementary list and the application filed by the two members of the
Grievance redressal Committee, has been transmitted to the Court Master.
4. The Court has perused the application and has also heard the members
of the Grievance Redressal Committee i.e., Mr. B. B. Gupta, Senior
Advocate and Mr. Kamal Gupta, Advocate. It is submitted by both of them
that after the order passed on 7th August, 2020, neither the University of
Delhi (hereinafter, "DU") nor its officials have cooperated with the
Chairperson and the other members of the Committee. In fact, the contact
details of other two members of the Committee who are faculty members of
DU have also not been given to the Chairperson. Passwords for the
grievance emails have also not been shared. No meeting has been arranged
and all the activities are being conducted without consulting the Chairperson
or any independent members of the Committee. There has therefore been
complete non-cooperation by the DU officials and the Committee is being
by-passed.
5. It is also pointed out that one of the members of the Committee i.e.,
Professor K. S. Rao has made a statement in the media about grievances
being received from students. It is further submitted that one of the
grievance email addresses is, in fact, not working and the emails addressed
thereto bounce back. As the mobile numbers of the Committee were
contained in the order dated 7th August, 2020, a large number of students
have sent their grievances directly to them.
6. The counsels have apprised the Court that they informed the counsel
for DU about listing of the application. Court Master has also informed the
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counsel for DU, however, there is no appearance on behalf of DU today.
7. In the present case, the Petitioners have challenged the conduct of
online OBE by the DU. Vide order dated 7th August, 2020 this Court had
passed the following directions.
"78. Considering the nature of challenge in the
present petition, the technological challenges and
the fact that the evaluation is of 70-100 marks for
each paper, the following steps, shall be taken:
a) The question papers shall be made
accessible for regular and NCWEB students on
http://obe.du.ac.in and for SOL students on
http://solobe.du.ac.in.
b) Simultaneously, the question papers shall be
sent by email to all the students. Prof. Vinay
Gupta, Dean (Examinations) has confirmed both
before the Ld. Division Bench and before this
Court that DU has the emails of all the students
appearing in the final examinations and that the
question papers would be emailed to all students.
c) Regular students shall be given the
complete three hours for answering the question
papers. Additionally, regular students are given
one more hour for scanning the answer sheets
and for uploading the same. Thus regular
students would have a total period of four hours
to complete the exam, scan and upload/email the
answer sheets. Similarly, students under PWD
category are also given one additional hour for
downloading the question paper, completing
their answers and uploading the answer sheets
i.e., a total of six hours.
d) Students have the following options for
uploading/emailing the answer scripts, as
submitted by DU -
i. Students scan the answer sheets page by
page or question wise and upload the same on
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the DU portal within the 7MB limit;
ii. Students can also convert their answer
sheets into PDF files either question wise or in
entirety and e-mail the same to the central
email address at [email protected]
and/or to the respective
college/department/faculty email. The Dean
(Examinations) of DU has confirmed that the
said emails have the capacity of receiving
emails from all the students who are appearing
in the online OBE.
e) Those students who upload the answer
sheets on the portal would receive an
acknowledgement on the online OBE portal
itself.
f) In respect of students who email the answer
sheets to the central email address
([email protected]) or to the respective
colleges/departments/faculties, an auto
generated email shall be sent acknowledging
receipt of the answer sheets. Ld. Counsel for DU,
on instructions, has submitted that the auto-reply
shall be generated so that students are aware
that their answer sheets have been received.
g) DU shall ensure that the central email id as
also the email ids of all the colleges and
departments have adequate capacity to receive
and store the answer sheets so that the emails
sent by the students do not bounce back.
h) The central email id for uploading of answer
sheets i.e. [email protected], shall be
publicised adequately.
i) Under instructions, ld. counsel for the DU
has informed the Court that though there are 91
colleges in DU, the online OBE is being
conducted for students only in 64 colleges. The
list of Nodal officers for all the 64 colleges
including their mobile numbers and email
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addresses has been given to the Court. In
addition, the list of Nodal Officers for SOL and
NCWEB has also to be issued. Both these lists
shall be uploaded on the DU portal immediately
and not later than 8th August, 2020 by 6:00 pm.
j) The details of all the Nodal Persons in the
various departments/centres/faculty along with
the mobile numbers and email addresses of 55
departments has been submitted to the Court.
The same shall be uploaded on the DU portal by
6.00 pm on 8th August, 2020.
k) CSC Academy shall notify all its centres
about the schedule of the online OBE by the end
of today i.e., 7th August, 2020, so that the said
centres can provide assistance to students to the
best extent possible.
l) Grievance Cell:
In case the students have any grievances, they
shall send their grievances at
[email protected] and
[email protected], which have already
been notified by DU. The said emails shall be
monitored and supervised by Dr. Sanjeev Singh,
Joint Director DUCC, who shall entrust the same
to the Grievance officers. The emails received on
these email addresses shall be addressed and
resolved by the DU's Grievance Officers within
48 hours. Any grievances, which are not
addressed within the said period, shall be
automatically referred to a `Grievance Redressal
Committee'. The password for the email
addresses shall also be handed over by Dr.
Sanjeev Singh to the Chairperson of the
Committee in a sealed cover. The Grievance
Officers shall send a chart of grievances received
and grievances redressed, every two days, to the
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Chairperson of the Committee. In case any
grievance is not addressed by the Grievance
Officers within the stipulated time, the Committee
shall take a final decision on the same.
m) Grievance Redressal Committee:
1) DU has informed this Court about the
constitution of a Committee for the purposes of
redressing any grievances of students related to
answer scripts received in PDF format.
Considering the fact that students ought to have a
transparent and fair resolution of their issues and
are not forced to litigate, the said Committee is
reconstituted and shall constitute of the following
members:
i. Justice Pratibha Rani
(Retd. Judge, Delhi High Court) -
Chairperson
ii. Professor K. S. Rao,
Department of Botany - Deputy
Chairperson
iii. Professor Kavita Sharma,
Department of Commerce - Member
iv. Mr. B. B. Gupta, Senior Advocate
(M: 9811348989) - Member
v. Mr. Kamal Gupta, Advocate
(M: 9810988094) - Member
The Grievance Redressal Committee shall deal
with all the grievances of the students in respect
of downloading of question papers, uploading of
answer sheets, technical glitches, delays in
uploading and any other issues faced by students
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during the conduct of the OBE examinations.
2) Mr. Mohinder J. S. Rupal, ld. counsel for
DU (M:9811151216) shall be the Principal
Coordinator for the Committee and his role shall
be to ensure the smooth functioning of the
Committee and to coordinate between the DUCC
and other DU officials and the Committee.
3) The Chairperson shall be paid a lumpsum
fee of Rs.3 lakhs. The two external members have
kindly consented to serve pro bono and the
Principal Coordinator shall be paid a lumpsum
of Rs.1 lakh. The fees for the Chairperson and
the Principal Coordinator shall be paid by DU.
4) The Grievance Redressal Committee shall
hold its meetings either virtually or in the office
of the Dean (Examinations), DU. Adequate
arrangements for the same shall be made by
Dean (Examinations). The schedule of the said
meetings shall be decided by the Chairperson of
the Committee. The quorum for a meeting shall
be a minimum of (3) including the Chairperson.
5) The decision in respect of the grievances
shall be taken by the Committee within 5 days
from receipt of the email and the student shall be
duly notified of the said decision.
6) Grievance redressal shall continue during
the entire period of the examinations and shall
not be postponed till the end of the examinations,
in order to ensure simultaneous resolution of the
same.
(n) At the end of the OBE examinations a
comprehensive report of the conduct of
examinations shall be submitted by DU, within
four weeks.
(o) The uploaded answer sheets of students
shall also be simultaneously sent for evaluation
to the respective teachers/faculty to ensure that
declaration of results is not delayed in any
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By:PRATHIBA M SINGH
Signing Date:13.08.2020 22:08
manner. As seen from the past examination
schedules announced by DU, results are usually
announced within a short period after conclusion
of examinations and the same trend ought to be
maintained.
The directions in respect of transmission of
question papers by email, uploading of answer
sheets by email, notification of the various email
addresses including the central email address and
those of colleges and departments, email addresses
for raising grievances, generation of auto-reply,
have already been agreed to by DU. The grievance
redressal committee as constituted by DU is re-
constituted to ensure fairness and transparency.
The direction to send the uploaded answer sheets
for evaluation simultaneously is given to expedite
the declaration of results, to ensure a quick finality
for students who need to move on in their
careers."
A perusal of the above directions shows that the DU had to take various
steps to redress the grievances of students. A Grievance Redressal
Committee consisting of three independent members and two faculty
members of the DU was also constituted. The averments made in the
application and the submissions made today shows that no steps have been
taken whatsoever for ensuring that the grievance redressal mechanism is
operational. The OBE examinations have commenced on 10th August 2020.
Students are expressing several grievances which need to be addressed. The
working of the Grievance Redressal Committee which is to look into the
grievances of students giving the Online Open Book examinations (OBE)
currently underway, cannot be permitted to be hampered in this manner.
Clearly, there is complete non-compliance of the order passed by this Court
on 7th August, 2020.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed
By:PRATHIBA M SINGH
Signing Date:13.08.2020 22:08
8. Under these circumstances, let notice of this application be issued to
DU through Counsel. Professor P. C. Joshi, Pro-Vice Chancellor, DU to join
the video-conferencing hearing tomorrow i.e. 14th August, 2020 at 2:30 pm.
Professor K. S. Rao, Deputy Chairperson of the Grievance Redressal
Committee shall also join the hearing tomorrow. Counsels for the MHRD
and the UGC shall also ensure that one of their senior officials participates
in the hearing tomorrow.
9. Since the contact details of the Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor K.
S. Rao are not available with any of the parties appearing today, the present
order be communicated by the ld. Registrar General to Professor P. C. Joshi
and Professor K. S. Rao so that they can join the hearing tomorrow. In
addition, the present order be communicated to Mr. Mohinder Rupal,
counsel for DU.
10. In future, if the members of the Grievance Redressal Committee wish
to file an application or place any report before this Court, affidavits in
support thereof shall not be insisted upon by the Registry.
11. List on 14th August, 2020 at 2:30 pm.
PRATHIBA M. SINGH
JUDGE
AUGUST 13, 2020/dk/T
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed
By:PRATHIBA M SINGH
Signing Date:13.08.2020 22:08
