Comply with order allowing minority student to attend St Stephen's College: HC tells DU

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday said its order permitting a minority category student to attend classes amid a purported seat allocation dispute between St Stephen's College and Delhi University has to be complied with. A bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela was informed by the university that it had moved a plea seeking the recall of the court's October 28 order permitting the student to attend classes till further orders.

"If the contemnors think they are above the law, we will tell them they are not... We will call them here to explain their conduct. Our order may be right or wrong, but you have to comply with it. This court is of the view that till the order is recalled, the same has to be complied with," said the bench. A plea seeking contempt action was moved against the officials of the university for a "willful non-compliance" of the judicial order.

Delhi University's counsel assured the court of complying with the October 28 ruling in the course of the day without prejudice to their rights. The court subsequently accepted his statement, noting the university was bound by it. The contempt petition has been posted on November 11, when DU's plea for recall of the order would also come up for hearing.

The division bench had passed the order in October while dealing with the appeals filed by the college and the student against a HC judge's decision refusing him admission. While allowing the student to attend classes, the division bench ordered no more allocation of such seats. "The fact that the single judge in the judgement has found 18 students were entitled to admission in the St Stephen's College and one seat is vacant in the combination opted by the appellant student, the court, in the interim, permits him to attend classes till further orders," it said.

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DU vs St Stephen's College

The high court had asked the college not to make any further seat allocation under the minority quota category till further orders. The court had heard appeals against the October 14 judgment of the single judge, who held 18 out of 19 students were entitled to get admission in the college on merits. Before the single judge, the college sought directions to DU to approve and upload the list of all the candidates from a minority community forwarded to it for approving their admissions. The 19th student, in the appeal, claimed a seat was vacant after another student turned it down. The student therefore sought admission in the Bachelor of Arts course. DU objected to the appeals and said the college could not be permitted to "juggle" its allotted seats by changing the seat matrix in this manner.

Appearing before the single judge, the university accused the college of allocating seats by not adhering to the seat matrix but according to "its whims and fancies". The college, on the other hand, maintained the admission of the 19 students was within the permitted "sanctioned intake" and it did not exceed its permissible limit.