The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi University to release digital degrees to those students who have completed their graduation and require the degree to get admission to a university or for job purposes.
The High Court was unhappy as Delhi University was not issuing digital degrees despite the court’s orders. The university was asking for physical copies of the proofs attached by a student in the email.
Justice Singh has directed the university to submit the deadline by which they can issue digital degrees on an urgent and non-urgent basis.
The high court has directed the students who have made urgent requests for the degree to submit a document stating their urgency.
Till now, about thirty thousand students have placed their requests for a digital degree.
It was informed earlier by Dr. Sanjeev Singh, the Joint Director of Delhi University Computer Centre (DUCC), and Professor Vinay Gupta, the Dean (Examinations) that they had student data till 2019 November. However, they have revealed now that they have data till 2017.
On 7th August, the high court had passed several petitions to highlight the process for issuing digital degrees.
An online platform titled www.digicerti.du.ac.in was also formed for the purpose. The high court released instructions to DU to issue digital degrees within one week of student registration.
About 28000 students have uploaded their data on DigiLocker which is an initiative by MEITY (the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology). These students comprise of half of the students graduating in 2017. However in order to gain access, one needs the date of birth of the students and DU is yet to get it from the colleges.
An official of DU said that the meetings with the principals of different colleges will be held soon so that the data of students in 2018 and 2019 batches can be collected with the next 10 days.
DU’s counsel highlighted that issuing digital degrees to all the students will not be possible in one stretch. This is the result of not issuing degrees annually on time.
The high court has listed this matter for hearing purposes on 11th September. Before that hearing, DU has to submit an affidavit.
The high court had mentioned earlier that the need to issue certificates digitally was to ensure the safety of the students during the pandemic and also to help the students who are out of Delhi to get the degree for further study or job purposes.
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