New Delhi, Aug 10 (IANS): The Delhi High Court (HC) has praised the efforts of the Delhi University, DigiLocker and the IT team of the High Court for coming up with the template of the digital degree certificate in a timely manner amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Court records its appreciation for the effort of the officials of the Delhi High Court IT team, the officials of DigiLocker as also the officials of DU for coming up with the template of the digital degree certificate in a timely manner so as to enable students to complete their formalities for their proposed post-graduate applications," said a single judge bench of the HC presided by Justice Prathiba M Singh.

The court also asked the Delhi University to look into the question if marksheets and transcripts of students can also be issued digitally.

It asked the Delhi University to file an affidavit stating the measures and timelines regarding the transmission of data to DigiLocker.

"Let an affidavit be also placed on record by Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY)/DigiLocker as to what are the steps that DU needs to take to ensure that the data is made available to the students through DigiLocker," it added.

These directions were passed when the court was hearing a petition filed by few doctors who prayed for the court's direction to the colleges to issue degree certificates as they wanted to go abroad for further studies.

The petitioners had graduated from various medical colleges of Delhi in 2017 and 2018. They wished to pursue their post-graduate medical education in the US. The medical students had applied for issuance of degree certificates. However, the same were not issued by the University of Delhi on the ground that the contract with the printer had expired.

During the course of the hearing, the Delhi University submitted a sample digital degree certificate before the Court, which was prepared with the assistance of the officials from Digilocker as also IT officials from the High Court of Delhi. Following this, the court expressed satisfaction with the contents of the said sample.

The court also directed that the digital degree certificates for all of them (petitioners) be issued by email, on or before August 13, 2020. The court was also informed by the Delhi University that the data of all students who had graduated till November 2019 is already available with them.

The Delhi University submitted it has activated the online portal for issuance of digital degree certificates on www.digicerti.du.ac.in and the students have to register themselves and give their details, including their academic qualification, name of their college, etc.

"Upon the same being completed by the students, the digital degree certificates for the students shall be issued within a maximum period of one week after completing the verification etc.," DU submitted.

Following these submissions, the bench while stating the matter for further hearing on September 7 said, "All such students who require their digital degree certificates due to any urgent deadlines etc, are free to register on the portal and the officials at DU shall ensure that their digital degree certificates are issued within a period of one week from registration."

"In case the portal is not working for any reason, the details may be submitted on the e-mail addresses of Dr Sanjeev Singh and Professor Vinay Gupta and steps shall then be taken within the time prescribed," the bench added.