Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 4
In a significant judgment, the Punjab and Haryana HC has made it clear that the courts and the authorities concerned must ensure that admissions to academic institutions are not carried out on the grounds of equity or sympathy in violation of the rules or instructions governing the process.
Equal treatment for all
All candidates have to be provided equal treatment and a level-playing field by uniformly and strictly implementing the stipulations prescribed under the rules to maintain the sanctity and purity of the admission process. High Court Bench
The Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli asserted that the court was of the considered opinion that rules and instructions governing the admission were required to be strictly and uniformly applied to all candidates and could not be diluted by the courts or permitted to be treated as mere technicalities.
“We are constrained to say so as all candidates have to be provided equal treatment and a level-playing field by uniformly and strictly implementing the stipulations prescribed by the rules or instructions so as to maintain the sanctity and purity of the admission process. Therefore, those violating the rules or instructions cannot be permitted to obtain admissions on the grounds of misplaced sympathy or equity thereby rendering the rules otiose or meaningless,” the Bench added.
The assertion came on a petition filed against the Union of India and other respondents by a student aggrieved by the denial of admission to BTech, mechanical engineering programme, at the Indian Institute of Technology, Indore.
Taking up the matter, the Bench asserted that the petitioner was required to file the OBC-NCL (non-creamy layer) certificate issued on or after April 1. However, she applied for and undertook online registration on the strength of a certificate issued on June 14, 2016. She did not take steps till October 27, 2021, for obtaining a fresh OBC-NCL certificate from the authorities and did so only after a query.
The Bench added that the emphasis for obtaining a fresh OBC-NCL certificate could not be downplayed. The requirement was to ensure that the person did not belong to the creamy layer and the authorities were required to periodically verify the same as a candidate’s status regarding inclusion or exclusion from the creamy layer was subject to change.
Cannot permit admission to candidates violating rules: HC
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