The Delhi High Court in an interim order on Monday allowed the University of Delhi (DU) to offer admission in its newly introduced five-year integrated law courses on the basis of the result of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2023 only for the current academic year instead of implementing Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores for admission.
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula, which was hearing a plea filed by law student Prince Singh of DU law faculty against the DU decision, passed the interim order taking into account that the classes have already started for the current academic year at all other universities.
This issue has now led the court to consider a broader question: whether CUET should be mandatory for admission to all central universities, or whether they should have the freedom to make admission decisions.
The court has appointed senior advocate Arun Bhardwaj as amicus curiae in the case.
On September 12, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had told the Supreme Court that the five-year law degree is a professional course that may require different criteria to grant admission to students. She filed a counter-affidavit in the case seeking dismissal of the petition.
The UGC had said that the DU, with the approval of the Academic Council and the Executive Council, has decided to admit students through CLAT.
Even the Center opposed this plea saying that the admission standards for professional courses like engineering, medicine, law etc. are shaped by their specialized nature and specific skills and therefore should be guided by the different requirements of each course.
“While there are overarching policy guidelines, universities retain flexibility through their appropriate bodies, i.e. Academic Councils and Executive Councils, to tailor these guidelines to the unique requirements of such professional courses,” the Center said in its response.
“The National Education Policy (2020) also provides for the governance of higher education institutions by highly qualified, independent boards with academic and administrative autonomy. .
On August 28, the Center had informed the Supreme Court that the CUET is not mandatory for central universities and they enjoy autonomy in admissions. However, the UGC had taken a different stand and stated that it is mandatory for all central universities to adhere to the CUET score for admission to UG or PG courses. The court had subsequently given a week’s time to both the UGC and the Center to file a detailed counter affidavit in the matter.
It has also asked the DU to file a supplementary counter-affidavit in case it so wishes, making it clear that if no affidavit is filed at the next hearing, the matter will ultimately be heard on summary proceedings.
The PIL states that the DU decision creates a separate category of students who are eligible for admission. Furthermore, CUET’s inclusiveness in languages is emphasized, unlike CLAT’s English-language format. The plea states that the CLAT exam has been conducted in English since its inception. However, the CUET (UG) exam is conducted in 13 languages: English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
“It is worth noting here that the CUET is more inclusive, diverse and in line with the mandate of the National Education Policy. It will not be out of place to mention here that accused No. 1 uses two languages i.e. English and Hindi in his teaching and semester examinations,” the plea reads. There was a lot of demand for the introduction of these law courses at DU. It took a long time, with the Bar Council of India (BCI) granting approval for 60 seats each in the BA.LL.B. (Hons) and BBA.LL.B. (Hons.) programs. The university has said that sessions for both courses have been scheduled at the Faculty of Law, Kanad Bhawan, on the North Campus.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – IANS)
