CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday stayed the counselling for admission to BA-LLB (five-year integrated course) at Panjab University (PU). The counselling was scheduled for Wednesday.
While issuing a notice to PU, seeking reply by Thursday, the HC ordered, “In the meanwhile, the conduct of the counselling based on the revised merit list fixed for December 2 shall be kept in abeyance.”
A division bench, comprising Justice Jaswant Singh and Justice Sant Prakash, passed these orders after hearing a petition filed by Malayika Verma, a candidate for the course for the academic session 2020-21.
The issue is regarding admission to 90 seats in the general category out of the total 180 seats. The admissions are being made on the basis of marks obtained in the qualifying examination—Class XII.
The grievance was that the revised merit list for the counselling to be held on December 2 was uploaded after withdrawing the award of four marks assigned for having passed the paper of ‘Legal Studies’ in the Class XII examination, thereby reducing the rank of the petitioner from 86 to 690, which is beyond the assigned 90 seats in the general category.
The counsel for the petitioner informed the court that a case titled as Samriti versus Panjab University and others was filed, challenging the weightage of four marks for ‘Legal Studies’ for admission to BA-LLB (honours five years’ integrated course) on the ground that it was not mentioned in the prospectus.
“It is perhaps in the wake of the said writ petition filed that PU has withdrawn the award of four marks in the present case. However, for admission to BCom-LLB course, special weightage has been given to those who studied some special subjects during commerce course in the qualifying examination,” the counsel told the court.
It was contended that the university cannot pick and choose while extending the benefit of weightage of marks for subjects more so for ‘Legal Studies’ for the two courses. “Thus, the action is discriminatory and arbitrary,” the petitioner told the HC.
The case will now come up for hearing on December 3.