Delhi University teachers have written to Vice-Chancellor Prof. Deepak Pental alleging that the Union Human Resource Development Ministry guidelines for admitting Other Backward Classes students have been violated in certain M.A. and law courses.
The MHRD circular dated October 17, 2008, states that “the maximum cut-off for OBCs should be 10 per cent below the cut-off marks of the general category students”.
Teachers have claimed that these guidelines are not being followed.
The memorandum submitted to the V-C cites the instance of the Chemistry Department admission test, the general category cut-off for which was 104 of 300 marks, hence a general category student had to score 34.6 per cent. The memorandum states: “According to the terms in the MHRD circular, the cut-off for the OBC category should be 24.6 per cent or 74 marks. Instead the Chemistry Department has fixed 94 marks as the cut-off for the OBC category.”
This implied that an OBC student would have to secure 31.3 per cent.
Similar allegations have also been levelled against the Law Faculty. “Of more than 600 seats available for OBCs in the Law Faculty, only around 150 seats have been filled till the third week of June.”
The teachers have asked the V-C to intervene and issue directions to all departments and colleges to fix the cut-offs according to the MHRD circular. “This is particularly urgent as soon the various departments will convert seats meant for OBC students to general category seats and the OBC students will have to suffer,” the memorandum states.
Some in the university have said that since the Supreme Court guidelines direct institutions to provide relief of up to 10 per cent in cut-offs for OBC students, colleges can decide on a cut-off which is less than 10 per cent too.
One of the signatories to the memorandum G.N. Saibaba, who teaches in Ram Lal Anand College, said: “According to the Supreme Court, the cut-offs have to be determined in such a manner so as to make higher education accessible to a sufficient number of OBC students.”
Some colleges remain wary of lowering the cut-offs significantly as they would be flooded with students seeking admission for a limited number of seats.
