Kolkata, Nov. 6 -- The Calcutta High Court has ruled that universities cannot reopen an admission process midway to fill vacant reserved-category seats, observing that doing so would amount to "changing the goal posts after the game has begun".
A division bench of Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Arjun Ray Mukherjee made the observation while quashing an October 5 notification inviting fresh applications from reserved-category candidates for admission to a university's 2025 PhD programme.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by Rituparna Choudhury challenging the notification after a single judge declined immediate relief and directed the university to follow the procedure for de-reservation.
The dispute centred on vacant seats reserved for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) candidates and whether fresh applications could be invited during the second round of admissions. The bench held that government memoranda issued in May and September 2023 permitted vacant EWS seats to be filled by general-category candidates if no suitable reserved-category candidates were available.
However, such admissions must be restricted to candidates already included in the general merit list. No fresh candidates could be considered.
Rejecting the university's reliance on a January 2025 administrative clarification requiring reconsideration of reserved-category candidates at least twice, the court said reconsideration could not be equated with reopening admissions.
Both parties acknowledged that no eligible reserved-category candidate had been found during the admission process.
Setting aside the single judge's order and quashing the university notification, the bench directed the institution to consider Choudhury's candidature under the 2023 memoranda, preferably by November 20. The court also noted that no third-party rights would be affected.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.