‘Denying admission on technicality a violation of fundamental rights’: Delhi HC tells DU

Denying admission to a scheduled caste (SC) candidate solely on technical grounds amounts to violation of their fundamental rights, the Delhi high court ruled, as it directed Delhi University (DU) to admit a student whose admission was rejected due to their failure to submit SC category certificate within the stipulated time.

The direction, a bench of justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said, will ensure that procedural inefficiencies do not triumph at the expense of substantive justice.

“It is, therefore, seen that the denial of admission solely on a technical ground to a candidate belonging to SC category would be tantamount to a violation of his fundamental rights,” the court said in a December 12 ruling, released on Monday.

The bench added that “procedural inefficiencies” should not hinder constitutional schemes that promote upliftment of those at the fringes of society, and hinders upward mobility. “Bearing in mind the constitutional scheme which seeks to promote upliftment of those at the fringes of the society as also the fact that the certificate affirming SC category is only evidentiary in nature, the court deems it appropriate to adopt a balanced understanding to ensure that the procedural inefficiencies may not triumph at the expense of substantive justice,” the court said.

It added, “Thus, the denial of admission on the ground canvassed by the respondents would not only unjustly hinder the opportunity for upward mobility of the petitioner, rather the same would also be at odds with the constitutional ethos and the rule of law established through the judicial precedents discussed above.

The court was responding to a plea filed by a male candidate named Saksham, belonging to SC category, challenging the rejection of his candidature due to his failure to submit the SC category certificate within the deadline stipulated in the information bulletin. Besides seeking to quash DU’s decision, he had also sought for issuance of directions to the varsity to grant him admission in Bachelor of Arts (Vocational Studies) - Small and Medium Enterprise course. In his petition before the high court, the student had argued that he though he had applied for issuance of the SC certificate in April 2024, the same was only issued in September 2024 and the delay in procuring the certificate was beyond his control and not attributable to him.

Opposing the grant of admission, DU, represented by advocate Mohinder Rupal, submitted that the student furnished incorrect information regarding the date of issuance of certificate and thus his application was liable to be rejected.

However, the court directed DU varsity to allow the student to complete the formalities and facilitate the entire process, noting that he had submitted the certificate before the last date of admission.

In his 19-page ruling, Justice Kaurav also underlined the role of the SC certificate in determining the caste status. The judge said that caste status is derived from an individual’s lineage, social categorisation at birth and exists independently of the certificate. The SC certificate, justice Kaurav, said, only serves as a proof of an individual’s caste status but does not create or confer it.

“If an individual belongs to the SC or ST category, such status is determined by birth and is an inherent characteristic of an individual. In other words, such a certificate only confirms an individual’s caste status, it does not create or confer it. Instead, the caste status exists independently of the certificate and is derived from the individual’s lineage and social categorization at birth,” the court maintained.