Delhi HC seeks replies from UGC, DU

New Delhi: The Delhi high court has sought responses from the  University Grant Commission (UGC) and Delhi University (DU) on a petition seeking contempt action against them for allegedly not complying with its decision to appoint an 'ombudsman' in all varsities for redressal of students' grievances.

Justice V. Kameswar Rao issued notices to the UGC and DU seeking their replies on the plea and listed the matter for hearing on May 14.

The high court had last year directed the commission to set up a system to redress the grievances of students in all varsities, including DU, within four months.

The court had directed the varsity to “take necessary steps forthwith and appoint the ombudsman” expeditiously in terms of provisions of the UGC (Grievance Redressal) Regulations of 2012.

The contempt petition filed by Brajesh Singh, an advocate, alleged deliberate and willful non-compliance of the court’s February 3, 2017 order, which had said that the failure of universities to appoint an ombudsman or constitute a Grievance Redressal Committees (GRC) for colleges would defeat the very object of the grievance redressal mechanism provided under the regulations.

The petition said: “Over the time, the GRC constituted by the varsity is merely a dead paper body in the absence of the office of ombudsman and due to willful disobedience by the contemnors. Due to non-functioning of the Grievance Redressal Regulations, 2012, the students of the varsity are compelled to take remedy from this court by filing writ petitions for their genuine grievances."

The court had in its last year's order observed that all colleges and universities in the country need to have a mechanism to redress the grievances of students.

It had said that appointment of an 'ombudsman' in every university and a GRC for every college or group of colleges was “mandatory” and provided for under the Regulations.