New Delhi: Two general category students moved the Gujarat High Court after being deprived of admission to the National Institute of Design (NID). The students were denied admission despite four reserved seats lying vacant.
Following a primary hearing on the matter, the court issued a notice to the NID, reported Ahmedabad Mirror.
Anjal Balabhaskaran and Suyash Tiwari from Kerala and Haryana respectively filed the petition. The petition sought the four seats to be converted into the general category for benefit of several aspirants like them.
The petitioners sought admission to the 30-month New Media Design for Masters course at the institute. They passed the examination with Balabhaskaran ranking 15th and Tiwari 17th in the open category.
“There are 19 seats available and out of them two are reserved for EWS, one for ST, three for SC, five for OBC and eight for the general category. Thus, 11 seats out of 19 are reserved for different categories resulting in a reservation of 57% which is contrary to the settled legal position,” the plea said.
With no eligible candidate in the EWS, ST and SC categories, NID converted four seats into the general category and admissions were granted accordingly. Despite that, four seats including two under the EWS and one each under the ST and OBC quotas are lying vacant.
“Despite there being no candidates for the reserved category seats, the same are not being de-reserved by the institute. Even as per the Handbook for Admissions for the academic year 2021-2022, clause- 5, NID is required to convert reserved seats into general category and give admissions to the wait-listed candidates of the general category,” claimed the plea.
The high court heard the matter on November 16. NID advocate then sought time to file a reply. The matter was posted for further hearing on November 23.
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