[ad_1]
The Delhi High Court on Monday said St Stephen’s College cannot conduct interviews for admission of undergraduate students belonging to “non-minority category” and directed it to admit such candidates only on the basis of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) results.
The court ordered the college to withdraw its admission prospectus in accordance with Delhi University’s (DU) instructions and issue a public notice declaring the amended admission procedure. A copy of the judgement was not immediately available.
“The petitioner college shall follow the directive that 100 per cent weightage must be given to CUET-2022 score for admission of students belonging to the non-minority category applying to undergraduate courses,” said the division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad.
St Stephen’s College and DU have been at loggerheads over the minority institution’s refusal to do away with interviews for admissions to its general seats. The college announced in April that it would give 85 per cent weightage to CUET score and 15 per cent to the interview.
The court said the fundamental right under Article 30(1) of the Constitution accorded to a minority institution cannot be extended to non-minority members and the state can formulate regulation concerning administration of minority institutions to the extent that it is for the furtherance of the interest of the minority community and to prevent maladministration.
“The aided minority educational institutions that are affiliated with the university must follow the norms and procedure of the said university,” said the court.
The court, however, added that the protection under Article 30(1) can be extended to the extent that it allows a minority institution to sub-classify the reservation accorded to the minority community. It thus set aside the communication sent by DU on May 9, that insisted on a single merit list regarding admission of candidates belonging to the Christian community.
“The respondent no.1 (DU) cannot insist upon a single merit list for admission of candidates belonging to Christian community, regardless of any denominations/ sub-sects/ sub-categories within the Christian community,” it said.
The court passed its order on two separate petitions.
A DU law student, Konika Poddar, had challenged the college’s decision to continue with the interview process for undergraduate seats. The PIL, filed through advocate Akash Vajpai, said it was “on behalf of the hundreds of students who want to take admission in the unreserved seats” of St Stephen’s but don’t want to appear for the interview as it “is against the admission policy” of DU, and also against the mandate of its academic and executive council.
St Stephen’s had filed a separate petition against DU’s communication directing it to withdraw the admission prospectus and to admit general category students based on only the CUET score. The college had also challenged DU’s directive asking it to issue a single merit list for admission of candidates belonging to the Christian community.
St Stephen’s College cannot be allowed to bring “subjectivity bias and discrimination” through conduct of interviews for students belonging to the non-minority communities, DU told the court in July.
[ad_2]
Source link