DU Admission 2024: St. Stephen’s, Delhi University clash over ‘single girl child’ quota

NEW DELHI: A fresh conflict is brewing between Delhi University and St.Stephen’s College as undergraduate admission is underway in the university. This time, the tussle is over the “single girl child” quota introduced by the university for DU admission 2024. Caught in the middle are students who were allocated seats in the college through the university’s Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) but are now clueless as their applications have not been processed yet.

The first phase of centralised counselling is over and seats were allocated on August 16; DU CSAS phase 2 begins tomorrow.

The DU CSAS policy states: “One seat in each programme of every college is reserved under the supernumerary quota for a single girl child. The parent/guardian (in case parents are deceased) will have to declare that the girl child is the only child of the parents and have no other male/female child other than the girl child for which the application is being submitted for admissions in the academic session 2024-25.”

DU Admissions: St. Stephen’s application ‘under process’

According to the university, one seat in the category was earmarked for every programme and in the case of the BA Programme, one seat for each of the combinations being offered by the college.

“Now, Stephen’s says they will accept only one child for the BA Programme under the quota and not for each of the combinations. Earlier they did not raise an issue about this, now all of a sudden they are stating they won’t accept it. We will be taking some action. Students need not worry about it, we will find a solution to this,” said a university official.

Stephen’s offers 13 different BA Programme combinations with a total of 28 seats which also includes ones for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Being a religious minority institution, the college reserves 50% of the seats for the Christian community.

One of the students, who was allocated a seat in the category said: “I had been waiting but the CSAS portal showed the application is under process. As today was the last date to pay fees I was getting worried, so when I called up the college they said the seats have been filled. Now I don’t know what to do.”

The process for the 2nd round of CSAS allocation and admission has begun.

DU CSAS portal and admissions

As per the CSAS policy, students are required to fill in their preferences of college and course. Depending on their scores in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET UG 2024), students are allotted seats.

After the first round of CSAS allocation, students who have been allocated seats have to accept the seat and pay fees. Only after doing so will they have the option to retain the seat or opt for an upgrade.

In the CSAS Phase 1 allocation 1,339 single girl children were allocated seats. The total number of candidates to be allocated seats was 97,387.

DU has a total 71,600 seats and there are about 1,559 programmes and college combinations possible.

St. Stephen’s stand

As per a source in the college, the problem is not about the girl child but about the university making extra allocation for the seats.

“When the college had specified that there were just about 28 seats for the programme, why has the university allocated almost 100% more seats?” asked the source.

The college is known to have accepted the first set of the required candidates whose CUET scores were on the higher end.

Delhi University, St. Stephen’s: Past conflict

In the 2022-23 session, DU and St. Stephen’s were involved in a legal battle over the admission process. The college had said that apart from the CUET score, they would also conduct interviews giving 15% weightage to all category students. The university had allowed them to conduct interviews for the 50% reserved category students but not for the general category students.

According to the university, there could not be two separate admission processes at the same college where the rest of the 62 DU colleges were admitting solely the CUET score for admission.

The college first moved the Delhi High Court, but the court ruled in favour of the university. The court directed the college to issue a fresh admission prospectus and give 100% weightage to the CUET score.

The college had then filed a special leave petition in the apex court. The Supreme Court also decided in favour of DU. It dismissed the college’s plea for interim relief. For the 50% reserved category, the college conducted interviews with 15% weightage.

In the 2023-24 academic session, Jesus and Mary College (JMC) also moved court as the university issued a notification stating all admission will be based on CUET.

The Supreme Court allowed the colleges to hold interviews for the Christian minority students with 15% weightage.