Delhi: Sports panel rejects 5,814 aspirants

New Delhi: Over 5,000 applicants, who made an effort to secure admission in Delhi University under the sports quota, were left disheartened with the varsity’s sports council declaring them ineligible due to invalid certificates.

Out of the 12,914 applications received under the sports quota, the varsity’s sports council rejected as many as 5,814 applications. The eight-day long trial had started on June 28 and ended on Friday.

According to an official, the reason for their ineligibility was due to their certificates which belonged to open tournaments, basic level, marking level and memorial-based organised sports, which the varsity does not consider for trials.

The varsity only considers certificates for sports trials which are for zonal, state, national level and international level. In accordance with the university’s guidelines, most of the DU colleges reserve up to 5 per cent of their seats.

Unlike previous years, this year’s sport’s trial candidates are being judged on a different basis with 40 per cent of the weightage being given to their certificates while 60 per cent is being given to the performance of the candidate.

Veteran sportspersons such as cricketers Gurucharan Singh and Sarkar Talwar and high-ranking government officials like Jagdeep Singh (DIG, CISF), Dr Vikram Singh (assistant director, JNU) and MP Singh (sports authority of India) supervised the sport trials in the varsity.

Last week, several students who appeared for the sports trials claimed that were declared ineligible to participate in the games, without the university explaining the actual reason behind it.

Vardant Solanki, a volleyball player, arrived at campus with all the certificates and documents he believed necessary, only to be rejected for no reason. “I thought I would gain admission into the university through the sports quota, so I never even considered any alternative options,” he regretted.