Dalit Student protests outside Vice-Chancellor's House of Banaras Hindu University over PhD admission rejected

A Dalit student has been demonstrating outside the Vice Chancellor's house at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) for the last 14 days after allegedly being rejected PhD admission.

Shivam Sonkar stated that the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies in the BHU declared six seats of PhD, where three seats will be kept aside for Junior Research Fellowship candidates and three will be filled based on an entrance exam.

He said he had applied for admission through the entrance test and got the second rank. There were no reserved seats for Scheduled Caste candidates in the entrance test category, and the three seats that were there were given to General and OBC candidates.

Assam Cancels Remaining Class 11 Exams Due to Panchayat Elections. "Also, the department did not fill three seats under the JRF category," he alleged.

Sonkar contended that the university could have exercised its discretion in filling the vacant seats with other category candidates, "but refused" to do so in his case. Sonkar started his sit-in protest on March 21, one day after the declaration of the results.

Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Sanjay Kumar on April 3 assured him that his request for admission would be reconsidered, Sonkar added. But the student said he will not withdraw his protest until the university accepts him.

Reacting to this, the university administration released a statement explaining that Sonkar had applied for admission under the Research Entrance Test, which had two seats available - one for a General category candidate and one for an OBC candidate, both of which were already taken.

"Because he stood second, he could not be admitted," the statement said. The administration added that Sonkar is insisting that three vacant JRF seats be converted into normal entrance test seats so that his admission can be allowed. "Such a conversion, however, is not allowed as per PhD regulations, and his admission was not possible on account of his rank," it said.