The Delhi High Court has said the online digital degree certificates issued by DU in monolingual, English, unlike the previous degree certificates which were bilingual, both in English and Hindi, would be valid for candidates to submit to their respective universities in foreign countries.
Justice Prathiba M. Singh said, “It is ordered that both formats of the online degree certificates, whether in monolingual format or bilingual format, would be valid for the candidates to submit to their respective universities/authorities in foreign countries and the present order may be used for the said purpose”. The court’s direction came while hearing a bunch of petitions relating to the issue of DU students not getting their degree certificates on time.
It asked DU to submit the mechanism devised for issuance of online transcripts and marksheets for admission to foreign universities or for purposes of employment. DU had said in cases where there is an urgency for example, for admission to foreign universities or for purposes of employment, it is willing to devise a mechanism to address the urgent requests.
DU, however, expressed inability to provide a mechanism for issuance of online transcripts and marksheets for regular students.
It said that as far as online degree certificates for students who graduated prior to 2017 are concerned, there was difficulty in creating an online mechanism. Prof. D.S. Rawat, Dean (Examinations), said printing of degrees has already been undertaken for students who graduated prior to 2017 and paper degrees have been sent to the respective colleges. DU said students who passed in 2017 and awarded degree in the convocation held in 2018 shall be issued paper degrees in three months through their respective colleges from where they have passed. Students passed in 2018 and 2019 shall be issued paper degrees in the next three months, after the issue of degree of 2017 through their respective colleges.
The High Court, however, directed DU to give specific deadlines or dates for issuance of paper degrees for students who graduated prior to 2017, who graduated in 2017, 2018, 2019 and ones who will be graduating in 2020.