Not all sports are equal under sports quota, says Delhi HC

The court ruled on the rights of candidates while responding to a petition filed by a woman against a single judge’s August 30 order refusing to admit her to a postgraduate (PG) course offered by Delhi University (DU) under the sports quota

New Delhi

The Delhi high court was listening to a plea filed by a candidate for admission to MA Psychology. (Representative photo)

Students, as a matter of right, cannot claim for inclusion of the sports played by them under the sports quota, the Delhi high court said, underscoring that all sports are neither at par nor enjoy the same popularity.

“A candidate/student cannot claim, as a matter of right, that the sport he or she participates in must be included in the sports quota. After all, it is admitted position that all sports are not at par and do not enjoy same popularity,” a bench of chief justice Manmohan and justice Tushar Rao Gedela said in their September 30 verdict, released on Tuesday.

The court ruled on the rights of candidates while responding to a petition filed by a woman against a single judge’s August 30 order refusing to admit her to a postgraduate (PG) course offered by Delhi University (DU) under the sports quota.

In the petition before the division bench, the candidate claimed that although the university in their bulletin of information of CSAS (Courses through Common Seat Allocation System) (PG)-2024 had mentioned “karate” as an option for admission under sports supernumerary quota, the online application for admission to MA in Psychology did not show this as an option. The plea added that the university considered the sport “karate” for providing sports numerary quota until the undergraduate (UG) level and for selected PG courses (MA Music, MPEd., BPEd, MFA) but has denied the same for other PG courses.

The university, represented by advocate Mohinder Rupal asserted that “karate” is not included in the list of sports for granting admission under the sports quota to PG courses.

Dismissing the petition, the court in its four-page order said that the non-inclusion of “karate” as a sport for admission in PG courses is DU’s policy decision. “This court is of the view that it is the policy decision of the University of Delhi, which is a central university, to decide the eligibility criteria, frame the guidelines for admission to different undergraduate or postgraduate courses, which would include deciding the sports/games to be considered for the purpose of granting admission in PG courses, under sports quota,” the court said.