SAMGEETA SHARMA Vs. UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The dispute involved in these writ petitions relatesto admission to LL.B. course 1994-95 in the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi.The petitioners sought admission but could not secure admission. Notice to showcause as to why rule nisi be not issued, was issued in these writ petitions andaffidavit in reply to the show cause notice was filed on behalf of the respondentsin CWP No. 3967/94. According to the petitioners the refusal to admit them wasillegal, arbitrary and unjust. But the respondents contend that admission wasdenied to the petitioners for valid and justifiable reasons. Since the issues involved in these writ petitions are common and the contentions raised are identical, we propose to dispose of these cases by a common order.

(2.) . As per the printed Bulletin of Information issued by the Faculty of Law,University of Delhi, (produced as Annexure R-1 along with the reply to the showcause notice) admissions to LL.B. course for all the three Law Centres during1994-95 were to be made centrally by the LL.B. Admission Committee on thebasis of LL.B. Entrance Test conducted as per rules and procedure given in theBulletin. The total number of seats is 1500. Out of them 600 seats are at LawCentre-1, 400 seats are at Law Centre-11 and the remaining 500 seats are atCampus Law Centre. All admissions were to be made strictly according to meritin the LL.B. Entrace Test, 1994. 15% of the total seats were reserved for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes. There was no reservation of seats forany other category. The important dates relating to the procedure for admissionwere given on the first page of the Bulletin and the same are extracted below;- <FRM>JUDGEMENT_80_DLT57_1995Html1.htm</FRM>

(3.) . All the petitioners submitted the applications for L.L.B. Entrance Test1994 within time and they were allowed to writ the Test held on 19/06/1994.According to the important dates given on the first page of the Bulletin, the resultof the Entrance Test was to be announced by the middle of July, 1994 and withinone week from the announcement of Test result, the candidates had to submitnecessary documents for eligibility and the choice of Law Centre. However, theresult of the Entrance Test was declared earlier i.e. on 1/07/1994. Accordingto the averments in the affidavit in reply to the show cause notice, on 1/07/1994 itself the deponent (Convener of the LL.B. Admission Committee) issued aPress release stating, inter alia, that the candidates who were eligible for admission to the course must obtain a prescribed form from the Office of the LL.B.Admission Committee and submit the same by 4.00 p.m. on 18/07/1994. Itwas also stated in the Press release that the first Admission List would be notifiedon 20-7-1994 on the notice board of the Faculty of Law. A copy of the said pressrelease was displayed on the notice board of the Faculty and was also pasted atvarious important places in the Law Faculty Building. It is also stated in the saidaffidavit that the Delhi edition of several news-papers including The Times ofIndia, The Pioneer, The Hindu and the Patriot had carried the news that theresult of the LL.B. Entrance Test had been declared, that the eligible candidatesshould obtain the prescribed form and submit the same by 4.00 p.m. on18-7-1994 and that the first Admission List would be displayed on the noticeboard of the Faculty on 20/07/1994. Photocopies of the said Press release andthe press clippings of the said newspapers are produced along with the affidavitof the respondents, marked as Annexure R-3. It is further stated in the affidavitthat another notice dated 7-7-1994 was displayed on the notice board of theFaculty and at several places in the Faculty building notifying again to thecandidates that the form required for proof regarding eligibility had to besubmitted latest by 4 p.m. on 18/07/1994 along with the required documentsand that under no circumstances the date would be extended. It was also madeclear in the said notice dated 7-7-1994 that if the Final year result of the qualifying examination taken by the candidate had not been declared, he/she mustsubmit the form latest by the above date and time along with 1st year and 2ndyear Admission ticket. A photocopy of the notice dated 7-7-1994 is marked asAnnexure R-4.