Plea in HC against DU cut-off system for state board students

New Delhi, Jul 3: Delhi High Court today sought the responses of Delhi University and Kerala government on a plea claiming that each college in the capital had different criteria for calculating cut-off marks of students from other state boards during the admission process.

Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw issued notice to the Delhi University, Kerala government as well as Hindu and Hansraj colleges, seeking their replies on a plea by a student from the southern state who has sought a uniform system of admission to be followed.

The court listed the matter for hearing on July 6. Thabassum Ahammad N K has contended in his plea that while his marks for admission was calculated as 99.6 per cent by St Stephens, Hindu and Hansraj colleges arrived at 93.33 per cent and 92.23 per cent respectively without any basis.

He said this problem was being faced by several students who had studied under the Kerala state board due to a DU circular which said all discipline subjects must have at least 70 per cent component as theory, which does not include internal assessment or continuous evaluation.

Under the CBSE pattern of exams, there is 70:30 ratio of theory and practical, while in Kerala State Education Board "the evaluation system is that 20 per cent will be given for internal assessment, 20 per cent for practical and 60 per cent for theory/written exam", the petition said.

"Thus even if a student has obtained 100 per cent marks, he will be evaluated only on the 60 per cent written exam, excluding marks obtained by the student in practical test which is an integral part of the exams as subjects like physics, chemistry and biology cannot and should not be evaluated without the practical.

"By reducing straight 10 per cent from the total marks in the case of above mentioned student (Ahammad), the authority is denying his rightful admission in the first-cut off list," the petition said.

It also said "there is no uniform system of admission in Delhi University (DU) and there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding with regard to calculation of cut-off marks, especially regarding students from other state boards."

PTI