SAUMYA CHOPRA Vs. UNIVERSITY OF DELHI AND ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Common issues of fact and law arise in these writ petitions which are, therefore, being taken up and decided by a common judgment. Initial reference would, for the sake of convenience, be made to the facts in W.P. (C) 12929/2018 (Saumya Chopra v. University of Delhi).

(2.) Having passed her Class XII examination from the Convent of Jesus and Mary School, and, thereafter, having acquired a B.A. (Hons) degree in History from the Hansraj College, University of Delhi, the petitioner Saumya Chopra, responding to a Press Release issued by the University, applied for admission to the three-year LL.B. Course of the University, on 20th May, 2018. In the examination, which took place on 18th June, 2018, the petitioner scored 221 marks out of 396, and was placed at the 104th rank. The number of seats in the General category (to which the petitioner belonged), for which applications were invited was, admittedly, 1167, as reflected in the PG Bulletin for information for admission for the LL.B. course. The said Bulletin also contained the following Clause (iii), on which the petitioner relies: "Those Applicants, who do not report to the "Reporting Centre" within the scheduled time limit of the given "Admission list", irrespective of the fact whether all other criteria of admission are fulfilled, shall NOT be considered for Admission in any of the subsequent lists."

(3.) The process of counselling, after the declaration of the results (in which, as already noted hereinabove, the petitioner was placed at the 104th rank) took place from 25th to 27th July, 2018. 1167 General category students i.e., students for all the notified seats were called for counselling, from whom 823 seats were filled and 344 General category seats, therefore, remained vacant. The second of round of counselling took place from 31st July to 2nd August, 2018, in which, against the 344 vacant seats, 312 students were called, from which 235 seats were filled and 109 seats remain vacant. Against these 109 vacant seats, in the third round of counselling, 72 students were called, from whom 45 seats were filled, leaving 64 vacant seats. At each stage, the petitioners point out, the number of students called for the next round of counselling, i.e. to prepare the next Admission List, were short of the number of seats remaining unfilled.