Notice to JNU over admissions

The Delhi High Court on Monday sought Jawaharlal Nehru University’s response on a petition challenging a single judge’s order dismissing some students’ plea against the varsity’s new admission policy for 2017-18 capping the number of students per professor for MPhil and PhD courses.

The students have claimed that proper procedure was not followed by the University while adopting a 2016 notification of the University Grant Commission (UGC) on the admission policy.

A bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice Anu Malhotra said: “The matter requires consideration” as it asked the varsity to file its affidavit before April 28, the next date of hearing.

Rejecting the students’ contention, the judge said the UGC Act, under which the regulation was issued, was enacted by Parliament and would prevail over the JNU Act that sets procedure for adopting the notification.

The students were of the view that the regulation only sets the minimum standards and it was for the varsity to decide how to implement them.

The single judge in its verdict passed on March 16 had refused to accept the students’ contention that the university can decide how to implement the regulations, saying once UGC framed the regulations, the varsity was required to follow it.