‘ Admit disabled students to M. Phil, PhD courses’

The Delhi high court on Friday asked the Jawaharlal Nehru University ( JNU) to admit physically challenged students — those who have cleared the entrance exam — in M. Phil and Ph. D courses.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar clarified that the prohibition in its earlier order, which had barred the university from giving admission to five per cent seats for students with disability to M. Phil and Ph. D courses, shall not come in the way of JNU in granting admission to the students in the persons with disability ( PWD) category.

The court was hearing a plea filed by National Federation of the Blind challenging the JNU’s admission policy for the 2018- 19 academic session, saying it stipulated 100 per cent weightage to the viva voce examination ( interview), terming it unfair.

The federation also challenged the JNU’s decision not to grant any weightage to the written examination and alleged that it had failed to grant any relief to persons with disabilities in the entrance examination despite statutory prescription.

When senior advocate S. K. Rungta, representing for the federation, said that results of successful students under the PWD category was not uploaded on the JNU website, the bench directed the varsity to display the results on the website.

The court had earlier directed the JNU to immediately declare the admission results for the two courses for the current academic session. In response, the JNU claimed that the admission policy for 2018- 19 was in pursuance of the University Grants Regulations of 2016, which the university has implemented them from 2017- 18.