Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 22 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Friday sought a response from the Delhi University (DU) on a plea filed by a group of colleges seeking exemption from reserving seats for students from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), as they were minority-run institutions.

A division bench of Justice Veena Birbal and Justice Manmohan Singh asked counsel appearing for DU to file a response by June 25, the next date of hearing.

Four colleges run by Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), constituted under the Delhi Sikh Gurdwaras Act, had approached the court challenging a single judge’s order directing them to continue with the admission process in accordance with the DU guidelines which lay down reservation for the Schedule Castes (SC)/Scheduled Tribes (ST) and OBC students.

The colleges - Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, Guru Gobind Singh College, Mata Sundari College and the Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College - declared minority institutes last year, contended that the reservation policy was not applicable to their institutions in view of a Supreme Court verdict on OBC reservations.

The apex court had held that minority educational institutions (MEI), whether they were aided by the government or unaided, were exempted from reserving seats for OBCs, the colleges said in their petition.

Appearing for the colleges, senior advocate K.T.S Tulsi submitted that the reservation policy was not only contrary to the Indian Constitution but also went against the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admissions) Act, 2006.

Noting that the admission procedure for the academic year 2012-2013 has started from June 4, the four colleges sought necessary directions to permit them to continue with the admission process for this academic year as was being done in the past.

“The appellant (colleges) herein filed an application for necessary directions, thereby permitting the appellant to continue with the admission/recruitment process for the academic year 2012-2013, as was being done by the appellant in the past years in the interest of the academic career of thousands of students who would apply for admission, so that there should be no ambiguity with respect to their status of admission,” said the petition.

“All along for the past 20-30 years, the Delhi University has permitted the DSGMC to give preferential treatment to the religious and linguistic minorities in the appellant colleges. There is no reason as to why the Delhi University all of a sudden now wishes to treat the appellant colleges as non-MEIs,” the petition stated.