'More Than 30,000 Students Have Applied For Online Degrees From DU, Not A Single Degree Issued Till Date': Delhi HC [Read Order]

The Court noted that so far more than 30,000 students have applied for issuance of online degree certificates on the online portal of DU and questioned three officials of DU regarding the status of issuance of degrees to them. The Court was apprised by these officials that none of the students have been issued a degree till date as the Digilocker portal that is to be accessed by the students for their degrees still lacks the data regarding the date of birth of students which has not been obtained by DU from its colleges so far.

Dr. Vinay Gupta, Dean (Examinations) remained absent from the hearing on account of bad health.

Moreover, the DU officials completed resiled from their earlier position that data of all students till November, 2019 was available with it. It informed the Court that the data of students who graduated in the year 2018 and 2019 is not available with it and that the said data has now been requested from the various colleges and faculties. They also informed the Court that for the year 2019, the DU has decided to affix passport size photographs on the degree certificates, hence there is longer time requirement to obtain data for the year.

The Court directed the officials to file affidavits capturing the above facts and to provide a proper timeline for as to by when the digital degree certificates shall be issued for both urgent and non-urgent requests in the affidavit. The affidavit is also to set out the process for students to download documents from Digilocker, in respect of those students whose data has been transmitted.

Moreover, the Court reiterated its earlier stance that no requirement for physical submission of documents must be insisted from the students as the same defeats the purpose of issuance of online degree certificates.

DU shall henceforth not insist on physical submission of documents for the purpose of issuance of digital degree certificates. The said requirement in the auto-generated email which is sent to students who apply on the portal for the online degree certificates, shall be deleted forthwith.

In order to provide relief to students who require their online degrees on an urgent basis, the Court ordered that

"All the students who have an urgent requirement for digital degree certificates shall again forward the request they have already uploaded on the portal by marking the same under the subject header as 'Priority/Urgent' to the email address being digitaldegree@du.ac.in. Along with the said email, any document to establish the urgency may also be attached, such as a letter from employer, letter from any Indian or foreign University or any document showing a deadline. For such students, the degree certificates shall be issued, within 7 working days."

Furthermore, it asked the Dr. Sanjeev Singh, Director, Delhi University Computer Center to consider creating an "urgency" tab on the portal itself to avoid duplication of efforts by students who have to mail separately in case of urgent requests.

The matter has been listed on 11^th September and the DU has been asked to comply with the Court's order before the date of next hearing.

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[Read Order]