Explainer: The DU vs Stephen's tussle on admission policy

While DU’s new admission policy mandates only the CUET score for admissions to 50% general seats, St Stephen’s insists on giving 15% weightage to interviews for all admissions. Here's why they are at loggerheads on this issue:

New Delhi: The ongoing tussle between Delhi University (DU) and St Stephen’s College over conducting interviews for admissions to unreserved seats has reached the Delhi High Court. The court is seeking responses from both the college and DU on a plea seeking direction from the college to ensure admissions for unreserved seats in undergraduate courses are done only based on the marks obtained by the students in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET).

The college has maintained that it reserves the right to admit students as per its admission policy given that it is a minority institution.  (HT Photo/Vipin Kumar)

DU and St Stephen’s College have been at loggerheads over the 2022-23 admission policy. While DU’s new admission policy does away with the interview component and mandates only the CUET score for admissions to 50% unreserved seats (general seats), St Stephen’s insists on giving 15% weightage to interviews for all admissions.

Prevailing admission procedure at St Stephen’s

As per the prevailing policy, 50% of seats in minority colleges are reserved for students belonging to the 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 is the only college in DU that conducts interviews for admitting students. In April, the college issued a circular stating that it will provide admissions based on the 85:15 (CUET: Interview) formula for all seat categories, triggering the ongoing tussle with the university.

The college has maintained that it reserves the right to admit students as per its admission policy given that it is a minority institution. “Stephen's will adopt CUET as its eligibility criteria, with 85% weightage for CUET and the college's interview for shortlisted candidates with the weightage of 15%,” states the college’s prospectus that was released last month. It also mentioned that interviews for Christian candidates will be conducted by a board including a Christian member nominated by the Supreme Council of the college.

Further, admission under the sports category will also be granted based on trials, certificates, CUET scores and the interview, the prospectus states. It outlines three components of the interview: Academic, co-curricular, and general awareness and sense of values. While the academic component will assess the candidate’s academic potential and suitability for the subject, beyond what is indicated by marks, the general awareness section will assess the candidate’s outlook, sense of values, level of awareness and motivation.

College insists on a “tried and trusted interview process”

Last month, St Stephen’s College principal John Varghese wrote to DU, refusing to do away with the interview process for all candidates, maintaining that it will continue to “retain its stellar, tried and trusted interview process” for admissions. Varghese also pointed out that the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in 1992 stated that “St Stephen’s, as a Christian minority institution, has its admission procedures approved by the highest court in the land and guaranteed by the Constitution of India.”

Nandita Narain, a St Stephen's College faculty member, and member of the College Governing Body said that the college has conducted interviews for a long time. In the late 1980s, however, the practice of conducting interviews was challenged by stakeholders. “I have been associated with the college since 1976 and even before that the college used to hold interviews. For a long time, the interview had 100% weightage, to begin with. Around 1987, a teacher from the college filed a PIL against the college for its interview-based process since the rest of the university was admitting students based on marks,” said Narain, who is among the three teachers of the college that approached the Delhi High Court in 2019 to challenge the appointment of a member nominated by the college’s Supreme Council to be a part of the interview panel for Christian students.

Narain who is vociferously against the CUET said that while the common entrance was unacademic and would promote coaching culture, the interview component was also counterproductive.

The DU Students Union also complained to the university authorities about the college stipulating interviews before admission. Similar petitions against the college’s interview policy were clubbed together and the matter reached the Supreme Court.

During the court proceedings, the college submitted that it had followed the interview process since its inception. “The provision for the interview, which has been the procedure followed by the College since its inception, is an integral part of the administration of the College. It is a part of its managerial function and it cannot be taken away by the University,” submitted the college. It also added that selection based on only marks obtained by the candidates would be unreasonable and violative of the fundamental right of the College guaranteed under Article 30 of the Constitution.

While ruling in favour of the college, the apex court noted that the college had compelling reasons to follow the interview process. “We see neither any arbitrariness nor any vice or lack of scientific basis in the interview or the selection. The interview confers no wide discretion to the Selection Committee to pick and choose any candidate of their choice,” it said.

The bench noted that the college received applications from all over the country and as noted by previous court judgments, the result obtained by a student in an examination held by one University could not be compared with the result obtained by another candidate in an examination of another University. “The merit judging by percentage of marks secured by applicants in different qualifying examinations with different standards may not lead to proper and fair selection… In the premises, the admission solely determined by the marks obtained by students, cannot be the best available objective guide to future academic performance,” states the judgment.

DU’s opposition to interviews for unreserved seats

DU is of the view that the introduction of a standardised common entrance test, CUET, has changed the circumstances under which the college previously conducted interviews for all students in all categories.

Last week, while referring to the Supreme Court judgment from 1992, university registrar Vikas Gupta said that the judgment of the Supreme Court needed to be “read in the light of the facts and circumstances” of that case and stated that the judgment was passed in the context of admissions conducted through qualifying examination marks of “different institutions of different standards”. He added that the judgment did not have relevance with the introduction of CUET. , “…..the judgment has no direct relevance in the changed facts and circumstances as the admissions are going to be done based on the merit obtained by applicants through one standardised, equitable, fair, transparent, nationalised common entrance test (CUET-UG)…”

Contested understanding of minority rights

Former principal of St Stephen’s College, Valson Thampu, said that the CUET had rendered the concept of the interview obsolete. “If an instrument such as the CUET existed during my time, I would have readily accepted it and abolished the interview,” said Thampu. While explaining the rationale behind conducting interviews in the past, he said that the absence of a standardised mechanism made it difficult to assess the merit of students coming from different state boards with varied marking policies. “With the introduction of CUET, the need to resort to a clumsy interview process spread over a long period has become imminently avoidable,” said Thampu.

He said that the college was formulating its stand on the issue based on a “wrong understanding of minority rights”. Thampu said that minority rights didn’t accord the right to a process as far as admissions were concerned. “The right to reserve 50% seats of the college for minority candidates is fully recognized by the university. The college should be grateful to the university for its generosity in allowing interviews for Christian students. But, it has instead gone on a war path,” said Thampu.

He added that the college’s insistence on conducting interviews could be driven by the fact that the instrument of interview allowed the college to manipulate and accommodate powerful interests at the time of admissions. “Suppose a student has scored 99.9%. To disqualify such a candidate, one simply needs to give the student one mark less out of 15 in the interview. A minority education institute has been entrusted with trust by the country and should not abuse it,” said Thampu.