Jahanvi Agarwal
Recently, the Central Government communicated to the Delhi High Court that the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) is not required for admission to central universities.
The division bench consisted of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula before whom the submissions from both sides were made. The Court passed the order on August 25 after the Centre’s counsel said CUET was not mandatory for central universities as they enjoy autonomy in matters of admission while the UGC’s lawyer took a contrary stand.
On August 25, a Central Government’s legal team representative went before the Court and relied on the National Education Policy (NEP) to support their argument that CUET is not required since Central Universities enjoy autonomy over the matters of admissions.
However, the UGC counsel stated that CUET is mandatorily required by its office order dated December 21, 2022.
The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) scores were being relied on by Delhi University (DU) to determine admissions into its newly introduced five-year integrated law courses until the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging this decision of Delhi University (DU) was heard in court.
A student at the DU Law Faculty, Prince Singh demanded that the CUET results should be used for admission to the five-year courses.
The UGC is alleged to have mandated that all Central universities must complete their undergraduate admission procedures in compliance with CUET. The five-year law courses at DU accept applicants through CUET for all other courses, but only CLAT scores are taken into account.
Due to this, the Faculty of Law at the University of Delhi stated that only a specific class, group, or section of students can be admitted to the five-year law courses.
Additionally, it is made clear that the CLAT is exclusively offered in English, unlike the CUET, which is offered in a variety of languages.
The NDOH for the said matter has been listed for 12.09.2023.
Case Name: Prince Singh v. Faculty of Law, University of Delhi & Ors.
Diary Number: 10737/2023
Bench: Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula.