Some DU students challenge physical classes, HC says high time to open

During the hearing of their petition, Justice Rekha Palli said there was no question of online exams now and asked why students cannot attend physical classes when everything is open. “It is high time that we open,” said the court.

The court will hear the matter next week.

The petition argues that the students had a legitimate expectation that online classes would continue, and that the notices under challenge, dated February 9 and 11, suffer from arbitrariness as they fail to take into account that the majority of students are from outside the capital and only about 21 days of classroom teaching are left in the ongoing semester.

The university has failed to consider issues like exploitative rents and refusal to rent to final semester students who have to get accommodation for only two months, it adds. The plea also states that many students, required to report to the university, are travelling to Delhi for the first time and flight tickets at such short notice are expensive.

“Most of the accommodations for students – PGs, hostels or apartments – house multiple students in one room. There is no question of Covid-19 norms being maintained in such cases,” contends the plea, adding that, in contrast, Dr Ambedkar University has made it clear that classes in hybrid mode would continue.

The petition also states that many students have enrolled in coaching classes for entrance and other exams in their hometowns and paid the fee that will not be refunded.