Despite DU colleges quoting high percentage for admission in undergraduate courses nearly 55 per cent of seats have been occupies till Thursday.

Amongst this DU has also been charged with favouritism to certain universities however on Thursday, Delhi University dismissed allegations of favouritism towards certain state boards and said that it maintains “equity to all meritorious candidates coming not only from Indian states but also from abroad”.

Delhi University’s Registrar, Vikar Gupta, said that the university is an equal opportunity provider and it does not do favouritism.

“Being a central university, the University of Delhi equally and uniformly values the academic credentials of all the candidates, irrespective of their states and school boards. This year too, equal opportunity was maintained by accepting applications based on merit only,” he said in a statement.

He further added, “The University of Delhi strongly refutes and condemns the falsity of news which is being circulated regarding favouring candidates from a few boards. Being a prestigious Central University with a long legacy of quality teaching and research, candidates across the country aspire to study in our colleges/departments/centres. It is our utmost responsibility to maintain justice and equity for all meritorious candidates coming not only from the Indian States but also from abroad.”

Under the first cut-off list, 60,904 students have applied to various colleges, as per the data shared by the registrar. Out of these, 46,054 students are from CBSE, and the rest are from other state boards.

By the end of Thursday, 31,172 students from CBSE, 2,365 from Kerala Board of Higher Secondary Education, 1,540 from Board of School Education Haryana, 1,429 from Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations and 1,301 from Board of Secondary Education Rajasthan in addition to other state boards have successfully secured their admissions, he said.

On Wednesday, Professor Rakesh Kumar Pandey, a faculty member of the varsity and member of the RSS-affiliated National Democratic Teachers’ Front, had alleged a conspiracy behind a large number of students from Kerala State Board getting admission to university colleges and had even used the term ‘Marks Jihad’. However, his comments met with criticism from other faculty members and different student outfits.

Delhi University, on October 1, released the first cut-off list, which showed an irregular spike compared to previous years’ first cut-off lists.

This spike was discriminatory for students living in remote rural areas as their resources and opportunities are less compared to students living in nearby cities, the student outfit said in a statement.

“Due to this high cut-off, only a few state board students where results have been inflated are able to take admission to the most reputed university in the country, which is quite wrong,” the statement read.