As a clerical error threatened to ruin her dream of studying economics at St. Stephen’s College of Delhi University, Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw has given a ray of hope to Jalnidh Kaur by directing the college not to fill up a seat in case it falls vacant till the next date of hearing. The court has also sought a response from the DU and St.
Stephen’s college on a petition filed by Kaur, who has sought admission to the college after her percentage increased following a reverification of her English marks. “In the absence of any provision for admission of students eligible on the basis of revised marks, the entire exercise of rechecking loses meaning,” said Justice Endlaw.
Kaur scored an aggregate of 94.2 per cent in her Class 12 CBSE Board exams. A gifted student throughout her school years, Kaur scored 98 in Political Science, 99 in Geography, 97 in Economics, 95 in Maths and 82 in English.
Suspecting that her marks in English were too low, she immediately applied for reverification of marks to the CBSE. Kaur finally got her revised marks on June 24 — her assessment of her performance had been correct — her marks in English had jumped to 91, an increase of 8 marks.
In her petition, Kaur has submitted that there was a delay by the CBSE in providing her the revised marksheet. Though she had now easily cleared the cut-off at St Stephen’s, she had missed the interview. With her revised marks, Kaur has easily cleared the cut-off but is now on tenterhooks as the college refused to grant admission stating that there was no vacancy.
When several representations to the college failed, Kaur moved the Delhi high court.