DU Law Admission: The five-year law course is a professional degree programme that may require different admission criteria, the University Grants Commission told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday in response to a petition against Delhi University’s decision to admit students to the course based solely on CLAT-UG 2023 and not CUET. UGC, in a counter affidavit filed in the matter, sought dismissal of the petition.
It stated that Delhi University, with the approval of its Academic Council and Executive Council, has decided to admit students to its integrated law course through the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), a centralised national-level entrance examination primarily adopted by the premier National Law Universities.
Similarly, the central government, which had previously stated that the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) was not mandatory for central universities, stated that admission standards for professional courses such as engineering, medicine, law, etc. are shaped by their specialised nature and specific skill, and thus must be governed by the unique prerequisites for each course.
In its response, the Centre stated, “While there are overarching policy guidelines, universities retain the flexibility through their Competent Bodies, i.e. Academic Councils and Executive Councils, to tailor these guidelines to meet the specific needs of such professional courses.”
“The National Education Policy (2020) also envisions governance of Higher Education lnstitutions by highly qualified independent Boards with academic and administrative autonomy…the petitioner’s request to quash the admission notice of University of Delhi may not be granted,” it said.
DU Law Admission: UGC opposes plea in HC
Last month, a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula had asked the Centre and the UGC to file their detailed replies on the petition by Prince Singh after the Centre’s counsel said CUET was not mandatory for central universities but the UGC’s lawyer took a contrary stand.
“It may be pertinent to note that the Five-Year Integrated Law programme is a professional degree programme, and that distinct assessment/evaluation criteria may be required for admission into this professional degree programme. In light of the aforementioned facts and circumstances, it is earnestly requested that this petition be dismissed by this Honourable Court,” according to the UGC’s affidavit.
In its response, the Centre stated that DU is one of the foremost central universities and has autonomy over its day-to-day operations.
Admission to its various professional courses and programmes is governed by DU’s own statutes, regulations, and ordinances, etc., according to the document.
Prince Singh, a law student at Campus Law Centre in DU, argued in his petition that the university, in issuing the challenged notification, imposed a “wholly unreasonable and arbitrary condition” that admission to five-year integrated law courses shall be based solely on merit in the CLAT-UG 2023 result, which violates the right to equality under Article 14 and the right to education under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The petition asserts that the condition lacks any discernible distinction and has no rational connection to the purpose of admission to the five-year integrated law courses at the Faculty of Law.
The petition requested that admission to five-year integrated law programmes be handled via the CUET-UG, 2023.
The apex court questioned DU’s decision to admit students to five-year integrated law courses based solely on CLAT-UG, 2023, earlier this month.
When other central institutions permitted admission to the programme based on the Ministry of Education’s CUET UG 2023, the high court stated that Delhi University was “not exceptional.”
