The Allahabad High Court on Thursday directed the Registrar, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University to take a decision on giving quota in LLM course.
A Single-Judge Bench of Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery passed this order, while hearing a petition filed by Juhi Dubey.
Petitioner, a University and State Level cricketer, said she was the beneficiary of sports quota in LL.B. course, which she had successfully passed in 2020. However, she was not granted the benefit of sports quota for admission in LL.M. (the Post Graduate Course) on the ground that no such quota was provided for the said course.
Rohit Pandey, Counsel appearing for the University, submitted that quota is provided faculty wise and the entire quota of two seats is for LLB course, therefore, no quota is available for LL.M. Course. However, it is not disputed that an appropriate decision can be taken at the University level regarding sports quota in LLM course also.
The Court said that presently, people of the country are happy and welcoming the sportspersons who have participated and come victorious from Olympic-2020, which has recently concluded in Tokyo. The exceptional performance of Indian Squad in Olympic-2020 is the best in the last four decades and India finishes at Serial No 48 in world ranking and at Serial No 33 in terms of overall medals. Out of seven medalists of India (One Gold, Two Silver and Four Bronze), three are women (Mirabai Chanu-Silver in Weightlifting; P.V. Sindhu-Bronze in Badminton; and, Lovlina Borgohain-Bronze in Boxing).
The Court noted that there are 12 Arjun Awardees in the Women Cricket Team of India, latest being Deepti Bhagwan Sharma in 2020. Mithali Raj is nominated by BCCI for Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The performance of Indian Women Cricket Team remained unexceptional. The Team was runner up in the World T-20 in 2020 and in One Day World Cup-2017 also, it remained runner up. Presently, the women leading Batsman and women leading Wicket Taker are from Indian Cricket Team.
The Union of India has initiated a Khelo India Programme, which has been introduced to revive the sports culture in India at the grassroot level by building strong frame work for sports played in the country and to establish India as a great sporting nation.
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“It is expected from the University that such bright sports persons should be given the benefit of sports quota even in the Post Graduate Course of LL.M. also. State as well as Union Governments are also helping the upcoming sports persons and we hope that even in upcoming international sports events including Cricket, our country will get more medals, awards and trophies”, the Court observed.
“In view of above, the writ petition is disposed of with a direction to Registrar, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur that in order to provide more support to such sports persons, the University will take a decision, in the interest of sports persons considering that sports persons of this country are doing very well even in international level to provide sports quota for LL.M. Course also,” the order said.