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Allowing withdrawal of a plea, Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed Jawaharlal Nehru University to consider the writ petition as representation and take appropriate decision as to conduct Jawaharlal Nehru University Entrance Examination (JNUEE – 2021) for Post Graduate courses bilingually.

The bench of Justice Prateek Jalan directed that University will do so as expeditiously as possible and practicable as the entrance examinations for the academic year 2021-2022 are likely to be held very shortly.

The prospectus for the admission has been issued on June 16, 2021, however, the petitioner approached the court recently.

Taking note of the situation, Court stated that even if the petitioner’s representation is considered favourably, the question papers need to be translated and appropriate arrangements would have to be made for this purpose.

Therefore, Court held that it is for the University to consider whether that can be done for the present academic year.

Without expressing any view on the merits of the petitioner’s grievances, Court disposed of the petition.

The petition was filed by one Hanuman Saran, a JNU Political Science and Sociology Post Graduate course aspirant who has filled the form for JNUEE 21-22.

He had filed the petition against an e-advertisement made by India's premier university, JNU, inviting the applications for entrance examination and a Brochure was also e-published along with entrance examination form by the University.

He had averred that the University being the instrumentality of the State, has a duty to act fairly and alleged that the unilateral action of the University is highly arbitrary for keeping the medium of entrance examination as English only instead of bilingual (English & Hindi Both).

He had contended that Article 29(2) of the Constitution of India confers a special right on citizens for admission into educational institutions and guarantees the rights of citizens of minority groups by providing that they must not be denied admission to educational institutions maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.

He had argued that the language of Article 29(2) is wide and unqualified and may well cover all citizens whether they belong to the majority or minority group.

He had also submitted that Hindi language is so popular that it is one of the 7 languages in India that is used to create a web address (URL) and about 78% of the people of the country speak and understand Hindi.

He had further argued that he at least has a right to get entry into premier university like JNU by simply asserting a better proposal of bilingual paper to be conducted.

He had asserted that if the paper is bilingual any difficulty faced by him in understanding English can easily be overcome by referring to its Hindi part of the question as Hindi has been the medium of instruction during his graduation level.

Placing the example of Madhya Pradesh Medical University which has recently decided to allow its student to write their exams in Hindi and Hinglish (Hindi and English mixed) in addition to English, the petitioner had contended that JNUEE is not an admission to professional post-graduation degree where English is necessary.

However, after some hearing, counsel for the petitioner sought Court’s permission to withdraw the writ petition with a direction upon the University to consider the grievance of the petitioner as a representation and take an appropriate decision.

Case Title: Hanuman Saran vs. Union of India and Anr.