In a big disappointment to students applying under the extracurricular activities (ECA) quota to Hindu College, chairperson SPN Punj on Wednesday declared that no admissions will take place in the category this year. He said that the action was being taken in lieu of the complaints of irregularities forwarded to him by the university Vice-Chancellor.
In a Press statement, Punj clarified that all admissions to Hindu College are made as per the guidelines of the university. However, he said, “The guidelines contain a clause that ‘the college may admit up to 5 per cent of students on Sports/ECA basis.’ This is an enabling, not mandatory clause. The option to admit, or not, students under these categories rests with the college. Indeed, many colleges including SRCC, St Stephen’s and IP College for Women are not taking admissions under ECA for several years.” Pursuing this mandate of the chairperson, the principal of the college Pradumn Kumar had issued a notice stating that there will not be any admission under this quota.
According to Punj, the governing body of the college has been receiving complaints, in writing, about malpractices in admissions under ECA. “One such complaint was forwarded by the Chancellor of the university, through the Vice-Chancellor, to the governing body for appropriate action. Concern has also been expressed by faculty members regarding violations of university rules in such admissions. Thus, the governing body did not wish to have aspersions cast on the integrity of the admission process affecting the hard-earned reputation of the college,” informed Punj.
Accordingly, as a first step, the college has finally decided to not to take any admissions on ECA basis this year. Separately, it has also decided to hold an enquiry and take action against those guilty of malpractices.
However, university sources had said that the college cannot scrap admissions under ECA because they did not mention it in a prospectus or on an official platform. Clarifying that, Punj said, “Problems arising out of the conflict over the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) prevented the college from publishing a prospectus which would have mentioned this fact. When this was brought to our attention, we had a public notice put up on the college notice board and website.”
Thus, admissions under the ECA category at the Hindu College have now been terminated for the academic session 2014-15 until further intervention from the university, Punj added