High Court refuses to stay DU’s letter warning St Stephen's of action if prospectus not withdrawn

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Friday refused to stay for now the Delhi University’s letter asking St. Stephen’s College to withdraw its prospectus for the undergraduate courses for the academic year 2022-23, giving 85 percent weightage to CUET and 15 percent weightage to college interview for its unreserved seats.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Sachin Datta, however, issued notice on the stay application and petition filed by the college. The bench listed it for further hearing on July 6, along with a similar petition filed by a law student who has sought direction from the college to take admission on its 'unreserved seats' in undergraduate courses only based on marks received by students in the common university entrance test (CUET), as mandated by the university.

The college has challenged the university’s letter asking it to withdraw its prospectus for the undergraduate courses for the academic year 2022-23, giving 85 percent weightage to CUET and 15 percent weightage to college interview for its unreserved seats.

When the counsel for the college urged the court to only clarify that the university will not insist on taking action against the college, the bench said “We are not going to say anything. You may stick to your stand”. “If you are not complying with their other directions you don’t comply with this also. Who is stopping you,” the bench said. When the college’s counsel said, “If we withdraw the prospectus, the matter becomes infructuous.” The bench said, then “Don’t do it”. As per the previous petition filed by the law student, on April 5, the university issued its admission policy for the academic year 2022-23, and on its last page of the Bulletin of Information, it specifically mentioned that admission to the unreserved seats in its minority colleges will be done only on the basis of marks obtained in CUET while on reserved seats minority colleges can give 15 percent weightage to the interview and 85 percent weightage to the CUET score at the time of admission.

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“On April 20, the college refused to follow the instructions of Delhi University and issued a press release and admission notice stating that the college will conduct interviews for both reserved and unreserved seats and give 15 percent weightage to interview and 85 percent weightage to CUET marks at the time of admission in its undergraduate courses,” it has said. It has said the college has issued its prospectus for the undergraduate courses for the academic year 2022-23 which states that it will adopt the CUET as the eligibility criteria with 85 percent weightage for CUET and the college's interview for shortlisted candidates with a weightage of 15 percent for its unreserved seats which is clearly contrary to the admission policy of the university.

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It has said according to some media reports, the Registrar of the university again wrote a letter to the college and warned them that if the prospectus issued by the college is not withdrawn and if it conducts any admission based on its admission policy, the university will not accept those admissions and they will be treated as null and void.