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Delhi University, St Stephen’s fight it out over admission interview in SC
The court was hearing DU’s appeal against a high court order that permitted St Stephen’s College to give 15% weightage for filling seats under Christian quota
The Delhi University (DU) on Friday told the Supreme Court that the seats for which the St Stephen’s College holds interviews are “virtually becoming payment seats”, attracting sharp rebuttal from the prestigious minority institution that said the contention was wrong and the university should not make such statements.
The court was hearing DU’s appeal against an order passed by the Delhi high court on July 21, permitting the college to give 15% weightage for filling seats under the Christian students quota for the academic year 2023-24. The court directed the college to consider the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores only while admitting students on the unreserved seats.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta appeared for the university and said, “I hope the college is not holding any interview. This 15% for interview is virtually becoming payment seats. This court knows about this practice.”
Mehta said that while there is no objection to the college reserving 50% seats for minorities, the seats should be filled up entirely on basis of merit decided by CUET scores. “Interview brings subjectivity. Even if I have more than 90% marks, someone with less marks gets admission,” he added.
Senior advocate A Mariarputham, appearing for the college, along with advocate Romy Chacko, objected to Mehta’s statement. “This is false. Such wrong statements need not be made. He is an officer of the court. He may argue on merits but not make such statements,” he said.
The solicitor general countered: “This is not a statement but my argument on merits.”
The college argued that in any case admissions for this year have ended on August 16, and interviews were conducted.
“This petition is infructuous as admissions closed on August 16, and classes for the new academic session have begun,” the senior counsel said.
The UGC, too, filed an appeal against the high court order and requested the court to take up both the appeals on Monday.
The bench of justices AS Bopanna and PS Narasimha agreed to the request and asked the two sides not to get “worked up” and reserve arguments for Monday.
The college approached the Delhi high court, challenging a December 8 order passed by the DU executive council that even for 50% minority quota seats, admissions should solely be done on the basis of CUET scores. The council said and no interview will be permitted. Following the council’s order, DU issued a notification on December 30. The college challenged both the order and the notification, saying they were unconstitutional.
In its interim order on July 21, the high court allowed the college to have 15% marks reserved for interview for minority candidates while general candidates had to be admitted on the basis of CUET scores.
The college claimed that over the years, it has been making admissions to undergraduate courses by earmarking 15% weightage for personal interaction or interview. Last year, with the introduction of CUET, the college had to admit students to its general category seats solely on CUET scores as the top court had in October 2022 refused to stay the HC order.
The college’s appeal which is still pending on this issue in the top court relied on the rights of minorities available under the Constitution to run and administer institutions.
Last year, too, when the controversy over CUET being applicable to minority quota seats arose, the high court on September 9, 2022 permitted St Stephen’s to proceed with its interview for Christian candidates.
