No immediate relief to Stephen’s in row with DU over admissions

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

However, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Sachin Datta issued notice on the stay application filed by the college. The bench listed the plea for further hearing on July 6, along with a similar petition filed by a law student who has sought direction to 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 varsity.

The college has challenged the DU letter asking to withdraw its prospectus for the UG courses for the 2022-23 academic year. 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.

As per the previous petition filed by the law student, on April 5, the varsity issued its admission policy for the academic year 2022-23, and 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 per cent weightage to the interview and 85 per cent weightage to the CUET score.  “On April 20, the college issued a press release stating that it will conduct interviews for both reserved and unreserved seats,” the student had said.