Delhi High Court seeks affidavit from DU on timeline, procedure for holding annual convocation for students

The Delhi High Court sought an affidavit from the Delhi University on the timeline and procedure for holding convocation on an annual basis for its students (Dhritiman Ray vs University of Delhi). .A single-judge Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh also sought details on the timelines for declaration of results, issuance of digital/paper marksheets and transcripts, issuance of digital/paper degrees, issuance of provisional degrees and transmission of data to Digilocker. ."DU shall file a comprehensive affidavit providing the timelines and procedure in respect of the above steps, so that students are not inconvenienced every semester and are not forced to approach the Court for obtaining their transcripts, marksheets, degree certificates, etc., as has happened in the present petitions, which are under consideration by this Court," the order said. .The order was passed in a batch of petitions by former DU students seeking issuance of degrees on an urgent basis. .The Court has been monitoring the process of issuance of degree certificates to DU students since July 2020 when it pulled up the varsity for not issuing degree certificate on account of lack of printing facility and paper. .Calling it derisory and inexcusable, the Court had asked DU to file an affidavit detailing how they intended to streamline the process of issuance of degree certificates..It had subsequently opined that there was no reason as to why DU should not be adopting technically advanced methods for the same. It, therefore, sought timelines to facilitate the issuance of degrees and marksheets. .The DU then submitted an affidavit stating that as per Executive Council Resolution of 1993, a degree could be “Advance degree before convocation” if a student was leaving the country to pursue higher studies..All other students, DU said, could apply for the provisional certificate which could also be given in digital form. .It was added that so far, DU has sent data of degree of 27,000 students of 2017 to digiLocker and within a month’s time entire data of 2017 would be transferred to digiLocker followed by 2018 and so on. .The Court, however, opined that the affidavit was not satisfactory inasmuch as no specific timelines were given for the issuance of digital degree certificates and for transmission of data to digilocker. .The affidavit is quite cryptic, the Court said as it opined that DU ought to prescribe a timeline to ensure that there is a comprehensive, streamlined procedure for declaration of results, issuance of transcripts, marksheets and degree certificates, etc..The court, therefore, granted six more weeks to DU to file a fresh affidavit. .The matter would be heard next on February 17. .Advocate Sarthak Maggon appeared for former DU students. .Advocates Mohinder JS Rupal and Hardik Rupal appeared for DU. .[Read Order]