On Monday, the High Court ordered Delhi University (DU) to ensure that the allotment of postgraduate (PG) seats in St. Stephen’s College is not disproportionately less than that of other colleges affiliated with the university. The court also asked the university to “consider framing an appropriate policy or guidelines to govern allocation/allotment of seats in PG courses amongst various colleges”.
St. Stephen’s College had moved the court in 2022 saying DU had been allocating disproportionately low number of PG seats to it.
Advocate Romy Chacko, representing St. Stephen’s College, referred to 2021-2022 admissions data, which showed that despite having 50 undergraduate seats in the Physics department, the college was allotted only six PG seats, and against 50 undergraduate seats in the Chemistry department, the college was allotted no PG seats whatsoever.
DU, on the other hand, told the court that St. Stephen’s College’s “rebellious” attitude in subjecting the students shortlisted by the university for admission to the PG courses to a further round of interview was the main factor that provoked DU to reduce the number of PG seats for the college.
The university said the students who could not clear the interview round were not granted admission by St. Stephen’s College. In such circumstances, DU had to make special efforts to ensure that such students were admitted to other colleges, it added. This was creating disharmony among students and also upsetting the system of allocation of PG seats among colleges, DU also told the court.
The university, however, said that if St. Stephen’s College restricts interviews for admission of PG students only to students belonging to the Christian minority community, DU would ensure a proportionate allocation of postgraduate seats to the college.
Following this submission, Justice C. Hari Shankar ordered that St. Stephen’s College be permitted to subject minority students seeking admission to PG courses to interview and to allocate 15% marks to the interview and the remaining 85% to CUET scores.
“Non-minority students would, however, not be subjected to any interview for admission to PG courses in the petitioner college. Their admission would solely be on the basis of their CUET score,” the court ordered.
