The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) on Thursday welcomed Monday’s order of the Delhi High Court directing the university administration to reverse seat cuts in MPhil/PhD, as well as holding the 100% viva-based entrance examination void and contrary to Article 14.
The teachers have said in a statement, “ It [the High Court] has also rejected the uniform eligibility conditions in the entrance test and directed JNU to give appropriate concessions to various reserved-category candidates.”
‘National waste’
The teachers also said that the High Court, through this judgment, has reprimanded the JNU for wasting valuable resources either deliberately or on account of wrong implementation and called the seat cut a “national waste that requires to be redressed appropriately”.
“JNUTA’s analysis of the data on the 2017-18 admissions has been used by the High Court to say that it thus appears to the court that 657 seats [221 MPhil and 436 PhD] vacancies existed. Clearly, these were unfilled despite existence of capacity in the JNU,” said the teachers.
‘Violation of CEI Act’
“The JNUTA has consistently argued that the seat cuts in JNU in 2017 and 2018 were in violation of the CEI Act and that the 100% viva voce and uniform eligibility marks without concessions to marginalised communities were unfair, discriminatory, and antithetical to social justice. The JNUTA stands vindicated on all these points by the Delhi High Court’s judgment,” the teachers’ body said in a statement.
The teachers also urged the JNU administration to stop arbitrary and discriminatory practices in the admissions process and implement the Delhi High Court’s orders in toto for the 2019 admissions to the MPhil/PhD programme.
In connection with the proposal to make the JNU entrance examination online, the JNUTA said that the administration is again unleashing a non-inclusive, discriminatory practice through online examinations based on MCQs that stands the risk of making the university more and more non-inclusive.
The teachers’ association said that it urges the administration from desisting from such steam-rolling action that directly contradicts the fundamental precepts of social justice.