Delhi High Court orders St. Stephen’s College to withdraw admission prospectus

The College has accorded 85% weightage to CUET scores and 15% to interviews for all candidates, a stand strongly opposed by DU.

The Delhi High Court on Monday, September 12, 2022, ordered St. Stephen’s College to issue a fresh prospectus giving 100% weightage to Common University Entrance Test (CUET) 2022 score for admission to students belonging to non-minority category applying to under-graduate courses.

The St. Stephen’s College has been at loggerheads with Delhi University over its admission criteria for undergraduate courses, with either party refusing to back off. The College, asserting its minority institution character, has accorded 85% weightage to CUET scores and 15% to interviews for all candidates, a stand strongly opposed by DU, which wants interviews to be conducted only for the reserved category students.

On Monday, a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad directed St. Stephen’s College do away with the process of conducting interviews for non-minority students and to follow the admission policy formulated by Delhi University.

“The communication dated May 9, 2022 issued by Delhi university is set aside to the extend that St Stephen’s College must follow the directive that 100 per cent weightage must be given to CUET 2022 score for admission to students belonging to non-minority category applying to under-graduate course,” the high court said.

“However, Delhi University cannot insist upon a single merit list for admission of candidates belonging to the Christian community regardless of any denomination, subset or sub-categories within the Christian community,” the High Court ordered.

St. Stephen’s College had moved the High Court seeking a stay on the Delhi University’s communication asking it to withdraw its prospectus for the undergraduate courses for the academic year 2022-23.

“The management must be permitted to mould the institution as they think fit and in accordance with their ideas of how the interest of the community in general and the institution in particular will be best served,” said St. Stephen’s College, which has been conducting interviews of non-minority students for the last 40 years.