Admissions violating guidelines will be deemed void: DU warns St Stephen’s

In the letter to St Stephen’s principal John Varghese, DU registrar Vikas Gupta said the college had assigned a weightage of 15% to interviews of candidates, in violation of the admission policies of the varsity, which mandated that admissions for the 2022-23 session be done solely on the basis of CUET-2022 scores.

The Delhi University on Tuesday wrote to St Stephen’s College informing the minority institution that it will declare ‘’null and void’’ all admissions made by college in violation of the Central Universities Common Entrance Tes (CUET) guidelines, after the college released a prospectus on Monday reiterating that it will admit students to undergraduate courses while sticking to its stated 85:15 (CUET score:interviews) weightage formula.

Delhi University (Amal KS/HT file photo)

In the letter to St Stephen’s principal John Varghese, DU registrar Vikas Gupta said the college had assigned a weightage of 15% to interviews of candidates, in violation of the admission policies of the varsity, which mandated that admissions for the 2022-23 session be done solely on the basis of CUET-2022 scores.

The university asked the college to withdraw the prospectus containing an ‘’incongruent policy” immediately and issue a public notice stating that the approved admission policy of the Delhi University shall be applicable to admissions to undergraduate courses offered by the college for academic session 2022-23.

Gupta said, “The University of Delhi shall not be responsible for any consequential impact on the life and career of the candidates admitted in your college in violation of the University admission policy’’.

He also reiterated the university’s position on the matter of admissions to minority institutions. “Taking note of the fact that it is a minority institution (Christian community college), the university has decided that 50% of open seats shall be filled solely on the basis of merit (CUET score),” Gupta said.The remaining 50% are reserved for minority candidates and shall be filled solely on the basis of 85:15 weightage formula, the DU registrar said.

The university had also informed the college that there will be a single merit list for admission of candidates belonging to the Christian community, regardless of any denominations/sub-sects/sub-categories.

Fifty percent of seats in minority colleges are reserved for students belonging to community which runs the institution. St Stephen’s College and Jesus and Mary College are two Christian minority institutions under Delhi University.

St Stephen’s, meanwhile, has stated that it reserves the right to admit students as per its own admission policy given that it is a minority institution. The college also issued a circular in April stating that it will provide admissions based on formula of 85% CUET scores and 15% interview marks for all categories. Since then, there has been a stalemate over the admission policy between the college and the university.

St Stephen’s principal did not respond to calls and text messages seek,ing his comment on the latest development.