Courts Can't Compel University To Conduct Fresh Round Of Counselling For Admissions Even If Unfilled Vacancies Exist: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has observed that it cannot pass a mandamus compelling a University to conduct a fresh round of counselling in its admission process. A division bench comprising Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela rejected a plea filed by a candidate who gave CUET-PG 2025 for admission in the Delhi University. He challenged an order of the single judge which held that the admission process came to an end on September 30 and no fresh round of counselling could be ordered. The candidate belonged to the Other Backward Classes category. He alleged that after the Spot Round IV was closed on September 12, the DU deliberately concealed the status of 98 Unreserved (UR) or OBC seats. He claimed that such seats were still available.He further claimed that he submitted a query to the DU to disclose the vacancies available in the OBC seats for LLB course and for consideration of his name against leftover seats but no response was received. Dismissing the appeal, the Court observed that the candidate did not dispute having secured 151 marks in the CUET Examination while the cut-off marks for the candidate in OBC category, that too in Spot Round IV counselling, were 155 mark. The Bench said that it was unable to appreciate as to on what basis the candidate was seeking a direction to the DU to conduct a Spot Round V counselling after the admission process was already over. “In case such directions are passed, it would lead to an anomalous, incongruous and a never ending situation. In that, every other ineligible candidate, irrespective of the category, would approach the Courts for passing a direction to the University authorities to conduct further rounds of counselling till all the seats are exhausted, irrespective of the cut-off marks,” the Court said. The varsity's counsel submitted that even after the Spot Round IV counselling unfilled vacancies may exist, but that by itself cannot be the sole reason compelling us to direct the DU to conduct Spot Round V counselling.On this, the Court clarified that there has to be a finality to the admission process and that the DU had conducted four Spot Rounds of counselling, whereafter it was deemed appropriate by the authorities to close such admission process.“Learned counsel for the appellant was unable to show us any reason nor could he place on record any judgment or authority for the proposition that the Courts are empowered to issue a writ of Mandamus compelling a University authority to conduct a fresh round of counselling,” the Court concluded.Title: NEHA MALAV v. DEAN (ADMISSIONS BRANCH), UNIVERSITY OF DELHI & ORSCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1460Click here to read order

Courts Can't Compel University To Conduct Fresh Round Of Counselling For Admissions Even If Unfilled Vacancies Exist: Delhi High Court

Nupur Thapliyal

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