The Delhi High Court has demanded an explanation from Delhi University why it has not included the names of two toppers who secured the highest marks after re-evaluation in its merit list for University Gold Medal and another prize.
The High Court made the oral remark when it took up a petition moved by Shivani Jindal and Abhishek Kumar Upadhyay through advocate Prashant Manchanda.
Shivani topped in BSc (Botany) in the year 2017, scoring 3,254 out of 3,500 marks while Abhishek passed MA (Hindi Literature) with 1,096 out of 1,600 marks.
They both applied for revaluation. Shivani’s revaluated score as declared on September 6, 2017 was 3,273, while Abhishek’s revaluated score as declared in December last year was 1,108.
Both petitioners were declared toppers on February 15, 2018 on the Founders’ Day of the College.They were shocked to learn that their names did not figure in the merit list issued by the Delhi University on October 11 containing the names of students entitled for the conferment of the awards and prizes including the University Medal, the Prof Savitri Sinha Smriti Swarna Padak, and the Maithili Sharan Gupta Puraskar, during the 95th annual convocation ceremony scheduled to be held on November 19, 2018.
Justice C Hari Shankar recently warned DU the court may initiate contempt if it fails to rectify the situation, while hearing the plea of the two toppers who attacked DU’s stand as “illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional” to deny university medal and another prize to the duo.
The University issued another merit list on October 20 which also did not have the names of the petitioners but of some other candidates who had also applied for revaluation.The toppers then moved a representation before DU administration, “however the same merely fell on deaf ears meeting no avail whatsoever” the petition complained to court.
