‘OBC seats can only be filled on scoring eligibility marks’

In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court has held that the seats reserved for students belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Delhi University can be filled up only by those OBC candidates who score the requisite eligibility marks and the balance seats have to be transferred to the general category.

The Bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw rejected the contention of a student, Aarju Aalam, who had moved the court that all OBC seats have to be filled up with the OBC candidates irrespective of the minimum eligibility prescribed and the marks secured by them.

Disposing of Mr. Aalam’s writ petition last week, the court asked Delhi University to introspect in the matter and devise procedures to ensure that in future it does not continue with the practices or procedures which have been held by the courts to be bad and particularly in the matters to which the university is a party.

Mr. Aalam, who belongs to OBC and had completed graduation in Hindi journalism and mass communication last year, had sought quashing of the admissions of the general category against the earmarked OBC quota seats in M.A. (East Asian Studies) programme in Delhi University, to which he had applied. The petitioner, who scored 34 per cent marks in the entrance test, also impugned the requirement of minimum eligibility of marks in the written test and interview in the case of earmarked OBC quota seats.

The court enquired from the university’s counsel about the rules under which it had determined the minimum eligibility in the entrance test for OBC candidates. The court was told that the cut-off marks were prescribed at 50 per cent at a meeting of the university’s admission committee on July 13 this year. In its 23-page judgment, the court said the selection to the reserved seats was independent and should not to be dependent upon the merit of the candidates in the general or unreserved category. Making the OBC candidates compete with the general category candidates was not permissible, observed the court.

Though the court held the procedure of admission followed by the university in relation to admission to OBC seats in MA (East Asian Studies) to be bad, it held that this would still not entitle the petitioner, who secured only 34 per cent marks in the entrance test, to admission.

HC directs Delhi University to introspect in the matter and devise procedures to ensure that in future it does not continue with the practices or procedures which have been held by the courts to be bad