New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Friday made it clear to DU that it cannot stall the court's order permitting a minority category student to attend classes amid a purported seat allocation dispute between St Stephen's College and the university.
A bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela told DU that it is not "above the law" when the university said that it would seek to recall the court's Oct 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," the high court said while hearing a plea seeking contempt action against university officials for a "willful non-compliance" of the order.
Delhi University's counsel assured the court of complying with the ruling in the course of the day without prejudice to anyone's rights. The court subsequently accepted his statement, noting that the university was bound by it. The contempt petition has been posted on Nov 11, when DU's plea to recall the order would also come up for hearing.
The court last month allowed a student to attend classes but also asked the college not to make any further seat allocation under the minority quota category till further orders while hearing appeals by the college and the student.
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. DU objected, saying the college could not be permitted to "juggle" its allotted seats by changing the seat matrix in this manner. tnn