Delhi High Court
Huda Ansari & Anr. vs Jamia Millia Islamia & Anr. on 6 July, 2022
$~27 & 28
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Date of Decision: 06th July, 2022
+ W.P.(C) 5017/2022 & CM APPL. 14941/2022
HUDA ANSARI & ANR. ..... Petitioners
Through: Mr. Tariq Adeeb and Mr. Shoaib
Haider, Advocates.
versus
JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA & ANR. ..... Respondents
Through: Mr. Ajay Digpaul, CGSC with
Mr. Kamal Digpaul and Ms. Swati
Kwatra, Advocates for R-UOI.
Mr. Pritish Sabharwal, Standing
Counsel with Mr. Sanjeet Kumar,
Advocate for R-1/JMI.
+ W.P.(C) 5329/2022 & CM APPL. 15906/2022
SHABNAM YASMIN ..... Petitioner
Through: Mr. Tariq Adeeb and Mr. Shoaib
Haider, Advocates.
versus
JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA & ANR. ..... Respondents
Through: Mr. Pritish Sabharwal, Standing
Counsel with Mr. Sanjeet Kumar,
Advocate for R-1/JMI.
Mr. Syed Abdul Haseeb and
Mr. Tanvir Zaki, Advocates for R-
2/UOI.
CORAM:
Signature Not Verified
Digitally Signed W.P.(C) 5017/2022 & W.P.(C) 5329/2022 Page 1 of 9
By:SAPNA SETHI
Signing Date:08.07.2022
10:06:56
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJEEV NARULA
JUDGMENT
SANJEEV NARULA, J. (Oral):
1. Considering the fact that the above-captioned petitions raise identical
grounds of challenge, arising out of similar facts, the same are being
disposed of vide a common order. As the prayers sought are also identical,
for the sake of reference, the prayer clause from W.P.(C) 5017/2022 is
extracted hereinbelow:
"a) Pass an order or direction to the respondent to set aside the
notice/order dated: 16.03.2022 and 17.03.2022 issued by the respondent no.
1 and 2 respectively;a
b) Pass an order or direction to stay the order/ notice dated 16.03.2022 and
17.03.2022 issued by the respondent no. 1 & 2;
c) Pass an order or direction to the respondent no. 1 & 2 to lock the seats of
the petitioners in the BDS allotted to them vide provisional allotment letter
dated 02.02.2022 till the pendency of the case; and
d) Pass any other and/or further relief to the Petitioner, as this Hon'ble
Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case."
2. Briefly stated, Petitioners No. 1 and 2 viz. Huda Ansari and Noora
Khalid, respectively in W.P.(C) 5017/2022, and Petitioner - Shabnam
Yasmin in W.P.(C) 5329/2022 appeared for National Eligibility Entrance
Test UG ("NEET-PG") examination held in 2021. The All-India Ranks
("AIR") of the Petitioners are: (a) Huda Ansari - 408869; (b) Noora Khalid
- 352153 and (c) Shabnam Yasmin - 160367.
3. After the declaration of ranks, Petitioners applied for admission in
Signature Not Verified
By:SAPNA SETHI
Signing Date:08.07.2022
10:06:56
Bachelor of Dental Surgery ("BDS") course in Respondent No. 1 - Jamia
Milia Islamia. Admittedly, all the Petitioners were declared to be successful
candidates in the first round of counselling and were selected for admission
in Respondent No. 1 college vide publication dated 1st February, 2022.
Pursuant thereto, an allotment letter was also issued to all of them.
4. On the strength of such allotment, Petitioners reported for, and duly
completed the admission process by submitting the academic fee. Much to
their dismay, a notice bearing no. U-11011/09/2021-MEC dated 16th March,
2022 was issued by the Medical Counselling Committee ("MCC") for
Respondent No. 1 declaring the admissions made in Round 1 and Round 2
of UG 2021 counselling for BDS course in Respondent No. 1 college, as
null and void on account of technical glitch in their system. Pursuant thereto,
Respondent No. 1 college also set aside the admissions made erroneously
vide notice dated 17th March, 2022.
5. The afore-noted notice is the subject matter of challenge in the present
petition, and the same is extracted hereinbelow:
"Ref. U-11011/09/2021-MEC Dated: 16-03-2022
NOTICE
Kind Attention Candidates:
This is to inform all the candidates who have joined Faculty of
Dentistry, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi in NEET-UG 2021 counselling
that allotments made to the candidates in Round-1 & in Round-2 of UG
2021 Counselling in Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi
is hereby declared to be null and void as the said allotment was made
erroneous due to technical glitch.
The Competent Authorities decided that fresh allotment will be made
for Mop-up Round of UG 2021. However, already admitted candidates in
Round -1 & 2 UG counselling 2021 will be allowed for Choice filling in
Mop-up Round & fees for already admitted candidates will be adjusted
Signature Not Verified
By:SAPNA SETHI
Signing Date:08.07.2022
10:06:56
during admission process by the College Authority if re-allotted. The
Candidates who will be excluded as per fresh allotment fees of such
candidates will be refunded by College Authority.
This notice is only in reference to the allotment made for BDS
seats in Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi UG-2021
Counselling & allotment made in other participating colleges remains the
same.
This issues with approval of competent Authority.
Notice posted on: 16-03-2022"
6. In terms of the said notification, a Mop-up counselling round was
conducted; Petitioners participated therein, but did not succeed in getting a
seat in Respondent No. 1 college. Subsequently, they raised certain
objections to the provisional list of selected candidates before the MCC. Mr.
Tariq Adeeb, counsel for Petitioners, states that these objections were not
considered by the MCC before releasing the final list of selected candidates.
Aggrieved thereby, Petitioners have approached the Court by way of the
instant petitions seeking the afore-noted reliefs.
7. On 30th March, 2022, the Court had directed Respondent No. 2 -
Director General of Health Services ("DGHS") to file an affidavit of a
responsible officer explaining as to why despite Respondent No. 1 having
knowledge of the technical glitch on 4th February, 2022, no action to cancel
the Petitioners' admission was taken up till 16th March, 2022. In compliance
with the said direction, an affidavit has been filed. The Respondent No. 2 in
their affidavit dated 7th April, 2022, explained the technical glitch resulting
in such erroneous allocation of seats. For the sake of completeness, it is
considered appropriate to reproduce the relevant contents of the said
affidavit explaining the technical glitch and the delay thereon. The same
read as under:
Signature Not Verified
By:SAPNA SETHI
Signing Date:08.07.2022
10:06:56
"7. It pertinent to mention that the provisional results of Round I was
declared on MCC portal on 27.01.2022. Since there was no merit violation
the discrepancy could not be identified by either of the Respondents and
NIC or any candidates participating in the counselling and hence the final
result was displayed on the website on 01.02.2022 and reporting was
started for candidates.
8. It was during reporting of Round I some E-mails regarding the non-
availability/viewing of seats for choice filling to open candidates for
"Muslim Women Quota" in Faculty of Dentistry at Jamia Millia Islamia on
the online portal was received in the official mail. The same was
immediately communicated to Jamia authorities and NIC authorities which
was around 04.02.2022. At that period of time the reporting (i.e.
03.02.2022-09.02.2022) was an undergoing progress when the anomaly was
reported to MCC any immediate changes in the software could not be
possible. Since the reporting for Round-1 only concluded on 09.02.2022.
MCC of DGHS was in regular communication with all the parties and to
how to rectify the error. An urgent Virtual meeting was called by MCC with
all the stake holders including NIC, Jamia authorities and ministry officials
on 14.02.2022 to verify whether any error had occurred and steps to rectify
the same. It was found in the meeting that NIC while preparing a new
software for counselling for the first time for Jamia Dental Institute the
"Muslim Women Seats" were not shown to open candidates. Accordingly it
was decided in the meeting that the software for counselling should
immediately be corrected as per the reservation of Jamia dental seats. The
error in the software was rectified on 15.02.2022 and that open seats for
Jamia Dentistry now could be filled in the choice list by open candidates as
well. The software was rectified by NIC officers and the round-2 of
counselling for Jamia dental was conducted with the help of new software
and the registration and choice filling for Round-2 was commenced on
17.02.2022.
9. It is pertinent to mention that the respondent No.1 while doing the
document verification at the time of Reporting of Round-I also could not
find out the discrepancy. It is further mention that MCC of DGHS as a
precautionary measure declares Provisional Allotment result before the
final allotment status is displayed. It is done as a measure so that if at all
there is any discrepancy in the seat allotment it can be rectified. It is
pertinent to mention that neither the Respondent No.1, NIC nor the allotted
candidates ever reported any discrepancy even though sufficient time was
provided to the parties concerned. The notice for provisional allotment and
reporting of any discrepancy in Round I is annexed as Annexure-2.
Signature Not Verified
By:SAPNA SETHI
Signing Date:08.07.2022
10:06:56
10. It is pertinent to mention that as once the error in the software was
rectified by NIC, in the meeting held on 14.02.2022 and as per schedule
declared the provisional results of Round-2 on 26.02.2022. It is again
mentioned that before the final allotment result of Round-2 was declared,
MCC posted a provisional allotment notice as a standard protocol to rectify
any discrepancy in the result if any. It is pertinent to mention that again
neither the Jamia authorities, NIC nor the candidates including the
petitioners never reported any error in the seat allotment/result and final
result was declared believing that there is no error. The notice for Round-2
for provisional allotment the same is annexed as Annexure-3.
11. During the ongoing of Mop-up Round RTI dated 15.03.2022 was filed by
a candidate that a student of lower merit has been allotted seat in Jamia
Dental open seat even though she was in higher merit than the allotted
candidate. In response to the RTI application an Internal Audit was
conducted by the MCC of DGHS to verify the claim the applicant made in
the RTI application that on the open seats internal candidates were allotted.
In the internal audit done at the level of MCC it was found that on BDS
seats of Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia there was a wide
disparity between the ranks of the allotted candidates that were allotted in
the last year's counselling and the ranks of allotted candidates in the
counselling held this year. To scrutinize the matter an emergency meeting
was called on 15.03.2022 with NIC representative and Jamia Authorities. In
the meeting it was found during Round-I due to the earlier flaw in software
some internal candidates had crept in the admission of Jamia dental seats
meant for open seats and were illegally occupying their seats from Round-I
and as such 08 internal candidates got allotted and joined on Open seats
which should have been allotted to open candidates. It is important to
mention that there were only 2 internal seats in Jamia dental college. This
illegal occupation of internal candidates on open seats could not be
identified by Jamia authorities at the time of reporting during certificate
verification during round-I and round-2.
12. Hence it was decided in the meeting that in the interest of justice and to
avoid any merit violation. The only way to rectify the inadvertent error of
software and to flush out the illegal occupants of open seats by some
internal candidates would be to make all admission done in round I and
round 2 will be made null and void. Hence a fresh new round was decided
to be conducted with the correct algorithm. A notice dated 16.03.2022 in
this regard was published by the MCC of DGHS on the MCC website. It is
pertinent to mention that a total no. of 29 candidates were allotted
collectively in Round I and 2 of the UG Counselling. The list of all the
admission/allotment done in the Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia
during Round 1 and Round 2 is attached as Annexure-4.
Signature Not Verified
By:SAPNA SETHI
Signing Date:08.07.2022
10:06:56
13. As per Fresh result declared by removing the excess internal candidates
the last merit as per new round for the Jamia Muslim Women Quota(Open)
is 28282 and last rank as per the merit for Jamia Muslim (OBC) quota is
31954 which is way higher to the AIR of the both the petitioners. The
cancellation of all the allotted seats was done as a rectification measure so
that no merit violation is done and internal candidates not eligible on opens
seats may be removed. It is further more mentioned that the candidates are
of low merit and are not eligible for the seat which was allotted to them.
After the cancellation was done which included the petitioners were allowed
to participate in the Mop-up Round of Counselling on sympathetic ground
and all the candidates were given ample amount of time to choose the
colleges and after choices the result was finally declared upon. The table
below is the comparison of the last rank as per merit is explained for the
better understanding of the Hon'ble Court."
8. In light of the above-extracted affidavit, it appears that there was a
genuine technical glitch resulting in erroneous allocation of the seats, of
which the Petitioners were beneficiaries. Despite the above clarification,
Petitioners continue to insist that they should be declared as successful
candidates in terms of the original allocation and seek quashing of the notice
dated 16th March, 2022. Mr. Adeeb argues that in round 1 of counselling,
majority of candidates preferred to opt for admission in colleges other than
Respondent No. 1 as their first choice on a hope that they would easily
secure admission therein. In round 1, whoever opted for Respondent No. 1
as their first choice, was selected for admission irrespective of their ranks
since higher ranking candidates chose other colleges. It was for this reason
that the Petitioners were admitted to Respondent No. 1 college in the first
round itself. He further states that there has not been any mistaken allotment
by Respondents as the above-noted allocation was within the bounds of the
eligibility criteria, seat matrix as well as database of all candidates'
preferences. As Petitioners were duly admitted into Respondent No. 1
college in desired course, they did not opt for upgradation of colleges after
Signature Not Verified
By:SAPNA SETHI
Signing Date:08.07.2022
10:06:56
conclusion of round 1 of counselling. It is further averred that Petitioners
have forgone other admission opportunities available to them in various
applicable quotas including, Muslim Quota, Muslim Women Quota, Muslim
OBC Quota or internal students of Jamia Quota based on their ranking.
9. The Court has considered the afore-noted contentions, and does not
find any ground to issue a writ of mandamus, as prayed for. The
Respondents have adequately demonstrated the factors which crept in the
system, leading to erroneous allocation of seats to several candidates,
including, Petitioners having lower ranks than the cut-off / last rank set by
Respondent No. 1, in round 1 and 2 of counselling process. Therefore, the
question that arises for consideration is whether a right stood vested in
favour of the Petitioners, who were erroneously declared to be successful
candidates on account of a technological glitch. The answer to this question
has to be in negative, as no candidate can be permitted to take benefit of an
inadvertent error. The impugned notice does not take away
any vested right or substantive rights of the Petitioners. It was merely a step
taken to correct an error whereby, an unwarranted advantage had accrued in
their favour, and the same does not amount to deprivation of a vested/
substantive right. Although the Court acknowledges that this may be an
unfortunate and harsh situation for Petitioners, whose hopes were unfairly
raised by the allocation in the first round, nevertheless, it shall decide the
matter in light of the undisputed and established facts before it. The seats
could not have been allocated to Petitioners particularly when in the Mop-
up/ fresh round of allotment, the last cut-off AIR rank for admission was
28282 in Jamia Muslim Women Quota (Open) and 31954 in Jamia Muslim
Signature Not Verified
By:SAPNA SETHI
Signing Date:08.07.2022
10:06:56
(OBC) Quota. Petitioners in both petitions, fall greatly short of this cut-off
rank and as such, cannot be admitted in Respondent No. 1 college on the
basis of merit.
10. Therefore, the cancellation of the seats allotted to the Petitioners was
a rectification measure, and no violation of merit or admission standards has
been done. Petitioners being candidates of lower merit, are not entitled to a
seat in BDS course in Respondent No. 1 college that was inadvertently
allotted to them in the first round.
11. In light of the foregoing reasons, both the petitions are dismissed. All
pending applications are also disposed of.
SANJEEV NARULA, J
JULY 6, 2022
nk
Signature Not Verified
By:SAPNA SETHI
Signing Date:08.07.2022
10:06:56
