By Vishal Narayan

New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS): Sixteen students are fighting a legal battle to salvage their future after their admissions were cancelled following allegations of irregularities in admitting them under the sports quota to Delhi University's Daulat Ram College.

On August 2, the admission of 16 girls under the sports quota was cancelled by college Principal Savita Roy through a notice, conveying that admission of those admitted under the first list -- issued on July 9 -- "stands cancelled" and asked them to re-register on August 4 and 6.

The college, however, in another communique issued on August 7, invited 12 out of 16 students to get admission under changed courses.

No such offer was extended to four students, who, Roy has alleged, do not have the "merit" to be in the college and who managed to get admission only through "favourism".

Students through a writ petition in the Delhi High Court have since managed to get a stay on the August 2 notice. The court has asked the college to allow all students in the class till the next hearing on October 11.

"Sixteen of us decided to not re-register ourselves and went to court because the principal said 'girls with high scores who didn't get chance earlier as they were not given their preferred subjects should be given a chance, and I feel bad about them, this is why you should re-register'. Which is unfair," a student who stood to lose her seat told IANS.

In her explanation, Roy stood by her decision against the four students and alleged irregularities committed by the sports committee in-charge in following the university guidelines and favouring certain students.

"I found that UG bulletin was not followed by the sports committee in admitting the students. For example in tennis, in which we have reserved two seats, the first and fourth ranks were given admission and not second and third, who were asked by the committee to wait for the second list," she said.

In another example, she alleged that top chess players were denied admission in the college, despite the game being listed under the college's name in the UG Bulletin, just "so that once these top players have got admission in other colleges, lower ranked candidates can be called for admission".

She has since removed the Sports Committee In-charge Kavita Sharma from her post and accused the sports teachers in the college of forming a "coterie".

"If I can rectify the previous wrong, then why should I not," she replied when asked for the reason the admission of the four students was cancelled when it was a lapse on the administration's part.

The former sports committee in-charge, in her turn, accused the Principal of playing "politics", insisting that she has done no wrong, and said she has written to the college governing body against her removal.

"It's a political vendetta against me. Had I known that she (Roy) would do such a thing against me, I would have refrained from conducting the sports admission," Sharma told IANS.

Counsel appearing for the students said the principal's reasons for cancelling the admission are unsound and arbitrary.

"Even if there are irregularities, there's a procedure to follow. Did she convene a sports committee? Did the committee acknowledge in the minutes that there were any irregularities? She did not do it.

"First she cancelled all 16 students and then she re-admitted 12 of them. There must be some record that those four students have done something wrong. There isn't any," advocate Mohit Gupta told IANS.