St Stephen's College moves Delhi HC challenging order to grant admission to 7 students

NEW DELHI: St. Stephen’s College on Monday approached the Delhi High Court challenging a single judge’s order for granting admission to seven students on the basis of the seats allocated by the Delhi University. The appeal is listed for hearing on Tuesday before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela. On September 6, the single judge had granted the relief to the seven students, saying the candidates were not at fault but had to face undue hardship due to an ongoing dispute between the institution and the university.

The court said the indecision on the part of the college part had left the petitioners in a state of uncertainty, preventing them from taking any further action at that stage. "On one hand, the petitioners faced the challenge of uncertainty over securing admission to their preferred college, St Stephen's, and on the other hand, they were also deprived of the opportunity to select and opt for their second-choice college. "The prolonged 'under-process' status effectively blocked their participation in subsequent allocation rounds, causing them to miss out on other potential options for securing a seat," the single judge had said.

Single girl child quota issue

The seven students had sought a direction to the college to provide them seats for the courses for which they have qualified. They had sought admission under the "single girl child quota" fixed by the DU. According to the university's bulletin for admission information, one seat in each programme in every college is reserved under the "supernumerary quota for a single girl child". The petitioners had submitted that despite being allotted seats by the university in the college for the BA Economics (Honours) and BA programme courses, their admissions were not completed within the stipulated time.

College opposes seat allotment

While the university had supported the petitions, they were opposed by the college. The college opposed the DU's stand that it was obliged to admit all candidates who were allotted seats through the university's Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS). The college said it can admit students only within the sanctioned limit. The single judge, in the verdict, noted that the seat matrix for the current academic session was prepared and forwarded by the college itself to the DU. It said the seat matrix offered by the college clearly indicates that it had offered 13 different BA programmes, each with its own specific allocation of seats for various categories of students.