Injustice being meted out to OBC students at Delhi’s Indraprastha University

Injustice being meted out to OBC students at Delhi’s Indraprastha University

Injustice being meted out to OBC students at Delhi’s Indraprastha University (GGSIPU)

Only 23% OBC quota provided instead of 27% guaranteed by Indian Constitution

Delhi Crown Bureau

New Delhi: Injustice continues to be meted out to students belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) year after year at the Delhi’s Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU), located in Sector 16C, Dwarka, even as the mandatory Constitutional provision of providing 27% reservation is not fulfilled.

The University has been providing OBC quota of 23 percent only in admissions every year ever since its inception. The University has provision of OBC quota for 85% meant for students belonging to the “Delhi Region” only, and no provision for the rest 15% meant OBCs from “Outside Delhi Region”.

To make the readers understand we take an example. For instance, the University has a total of 100 seats for two 5-year integrated LLB courses (60 for BA-LLB and 40 for BBA-LLB). Ideally 27 seats should be filled by students belonging to the OBCs. But, the formula adopted at the University for calculating the seats for OBC reservation is “27% of 85%”, which comes out to be 23 seats. Means, four seats (27 – 23 = 4) are denied to OBC students every year. And, it has gone unnoticed and unchallenged all these years.

This gross irregularity was admitted by two senior officials of the University recently during a hearing before the Chairman of Delhi OBC Commission Jagdish Yadav.

After being summoned by the Delhi OBC Commission over irregularities at the University while granting admissions to OBC students, the two officials said, “Yes, we provide OBC reservation by adopting the formula 27% of 85% only, i.e. to the students from Delhi Region only. And, this we do due to the mandate given to us by the Delhi Government. Unlike many other Universities, we do not have provisions for OBC quota for those belonging to Outside Delhi Region. We provide OBC reservation to students belonging to Delhi Region only, i.e. 27% of 85%.”

The two officials who were summoned by the Delhi OBC Commission, following a complaint by a person belonging to the OBCs, included the Registrar and the Incharge of Admissions at the University.

GGSIPU was established by the Government of NCT of Delhi under the provisions of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Act, 1998. The University is recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC), India under Section 2 (f) and 12 (b) of the UGC Act.

Second flaw admitted by the two University officials was that the students who passed XII standard from schools located in areas surrounding Delhi and a part of the National Capital Region (NCR) (such as Gurgaon) are put in the “General Category”, despite the fact that such students are ordinary residents of Delhi and possess OBC Certificates issued by competent authorities in the Delhi Government.

Notably, such OBC Certificates are issued by the Delhi Government officials after strict screening and verification of students and their parents’ residence, including asking for Residence Proof prior to the year 1993.

But such OBC Certificates are rendered infructuous by the GGSIPU citing the condition that the student passed XII standard from a school located “Outside Delhi”, i.e. in NCR. In many cases such schools are located just next to borders between Delhi and the surrounding states viz Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

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