Admit PwD category students to MPhil, PhD courses: HC to JNU

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the JNU to admit students with disabilities in MPhil and PhD courses who have cleared the entrance examination.

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 varsity from giving admission to the five per cent unfilled seats for students with disability for MPhil and PhD courses, shall not come in the way of JNU in granting admission to the students in the Persons With Disability (PwD) category who were successful.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the National Federation of the Blind challenging the admission policy of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) 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 university's decision not to grant any weighage to the written examination and alleged that the varsity had failed to grant any relaxation to persons with disabilities in the entrance examination despite statutory prescription.

When senior advocate SK Rungta, appearing for the federation, said the results of successful students under the PwD category was not uploaded on the JNU website, the bench directed the varsity to display the entire result on the website.

He also sought that those declared successful be granted admission.

Advocate Monika Arora, appearing for the JNU, said the university has declared the results of MPhil and PhD courses for the two courses.

The court had earlier directed the JNU to immediately declare the admission results for the two courses for the current academic session.

In response to the petition, the JNU has claimed that its contents were wrong and had denied them. It claimed that the admission policy 2018-19 was in pursuance of the University Grants Commission Regulations of 2016 as the University has implemented them from 2017-18.

The plea has said that five per cent of the total seats for the MPhil and the PhD courses have to be kept reserved for persons with disabilities.

It has said these decisions and stipulations by the university were unconstitutional and contrary to the specific statutory provision.