DU assures HC of following Supreme Court orders

New Delhi, Aug 17 (UNI) Delhi University (DU) has assured the Delhi High Court (HC) that it will follow the Supreme Court orders while filling the quota of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) for admissions in the post-graduate (PG) medical courses.

Lawyer for DU A Mariarputham told the HC yesterday that it will follow the Supreme Court guidelines, which say that the total number of seats in the PG courses on an All-India basis would be 50 per cent of the total number of seats without any exclusion, and the calculation will be done on the same basis, which was adopted when All-India quota was 25 per cent.

A writ petition has been filed by a SC candidate, seeking admission in the post-graduate course, based on the quota available for All-India level alongwith added seats with the approval of the Academic Council and not stated in the prospectus.

After hearing the arguments from the DU and the Union of India, Justice R P Bhatt deferred the hearing to September 27.

Lawyer for the Union Of India Virender Sood said its name should be excluded from the list of respondents as it had no direct role to play in the admission with regard to the reservation of seats for SC/ST since the PG courses in the colleges are under the University of Delhi.

Petitioner Ajay Kumar Singh had approached the HC stating that he was denied admission in the session of 2005 in the PG medical course, which was in violation of the Supreme Court orders of February 28, 2005 that stated the percentage of All-India quota be increased from 25 per cent to 50 per cent.

He stated that the guiding policy for filling the reserved quota for SC/ST was to provide seats through a specific percentage and refusal on the criteria fixed arbitrarily will be on flimsy ground which will deprive the deserving candidates. It is also against the letter and spirit of our Constitution, he added.

The arguments will continue in the case on September 27.

UNI