M Phil and Ph D courses : HC asks JNU to give admission to students with disability

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Jawaharlal Nehru University to admit for M Phil and Ph D courses students with disability if they have cleared the entrance exam.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar clarified that the prohibition in its earlier order, which had barred the varsity from giving admission to the five per cent unfilled seats for students with disability for M Phil and Ph D courses, shall not come in the way of JNU in granting admission to the students in the Persons with Disability (PWD) category who were successful. 

The court was hearing a petition filed by the National Federation of the Blind challenging the admission policy of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for the 2018-19 academic session, saying it stipulated 100 per cent weightage to the viva voce examination (interview), terming it unfair. 

The federation also challenged the university's decision not to grant any weightage to the written examination and alleged that the varsity had failed to grant any relaxation to persons with disabilities in the entrance examination despite statutory prescription. 

When senior advocate S K Rungta, appearing for the federation, said the results of successful students under the PWD category was not uploaded on the JNU website, the bench directed the varsity to display the entire result on the website. 

He also sought that those declared successful be granted admission. Advocate Monika Arora, appearing for the JNU, said the university has declared the results of M Phil and Ph D courses for the two courses. 

The court had earlier directed the JNU to immediately declare the admission results for the two courses for the current academic session. In response to the petition, the JNU has claimed that its contents were wrong and had denied them. 

It claimed that the admission policy 2018-19 was in pursuance of the UGC Regulations of 2016 as the university has implemented them from 2017-18. 

The plea has said that five per cent of the total seats for the M Phil and the Ph D courses have to be kept reserved for persons with disabilities. 

It has said these decisions and stipulations by the university were unconstitutional and contrary to the specific statutory provision.  

It had said if the varsity was permitted to effectuate admission based on such a policy and incidents, grave and irreparable loss would be caused to the interests of the disabled students.