The Delhi High Court on Tuesday permitted Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to continue with the admission process for its postgraduate courses, which was earlier halted by a single-judge bench over a challenge to the award of “deprivation points” to certain candidates.
A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia modified the single judge’s order, and stated that the admissions would be subject to the outcome of the challenge. The single judge had ordered that the admissions shall not be finalised and no further steps would be taken in this regard till August 24. The court noted that the e-prospectus for academic year 2026-2027 was issued on April 3, and the admission process began on May 25.
On August 14, the single judge halted admissions based on “deprivation points” following a petition by Amit Mehra, who aspired to be admitted to a post-graduate course in the university. Dealing with JNU’s appeal against the order, the division bench observed that the practice of awarding “deprivation points” has been present since 1974, and the entire admission process had been “put to a halt” due to the single judge’s direction.
