Supreme Court Says Delhi HC Can Hear St. Stephen's College's Plea Challenging DU's Mandate To Admit Minority Students Solely On CUET Score

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and JB Pardiwala was considering an appeal preferred last year by St Stephen’s college against a Delhi High Court order restraining it from conducting interviews for non-Christian applicants for admission to undergraduate courses, in addition to considering their CUET scores. In the last academic year, pursuant to this order, the college admitted Christian students on the basis of an 85:15 formula, with 85 per cent weightage given to the result of the entrance examination and 15 per cent to its own interview. However, with respect to the current academic year, the University of Delhi has issued a notification insisting on hundred percent weightage on CUET scores for admission to minority quota in minority institutions such as St Stephen’s.

Senior Advocate A Mariarputham, appearing for the college, informed the apex court bench today that the Delhi High Court had deferred the hearing of a writ petition challenging the DU notification in view of the pendency of this special leave petition, even though the issues in it dealt only with general category seats, and not those reserved for minorities. Therefore, the counsel sought a clarification that the high court can proceed to hear the matter with regard to admissions from the minority category:

“Even though DU was party to the high court’s order and did not challenge it, it has now issued a notification stating that even with respect to the minority quota seats, no interview may be conducted. We have challenged this before the division bench of the Delhi High Court. However, it held that since the earlier order was pending in appeal before the Supreme Court, it would not be proper for it to hear this fresh challenge. My submission is very limited and it is this: What is pending before this court is one aspect of the high court’s order, not the entirety of it; and Your Lordships may clarify that the division bench can hear the present challenge with respect to the minority quota seats in the current academic year.”

“Our contention is that the directions of the Delhi High Court pertained only to the last academic year, and not this present one,” said Additional Solicitor-General Vikramjit Banerjee, appearing for the varsity as well as the University Grants Commission (UGC), “Moreover, certain observations were made by the division bench in the last round which had implications for the minority quota as well, which is why the high court deferred the hearing.”

The law officer, however, hastened to add, “We do not have a problem if the matter is being heard by this court or for that matter, the high court.”

“Then, let the Delhi High Court decide,” Justice Gavai said, before proceeding to pronounce the following order:

“We clarify that the high court will be at liberty to proceed further with the hearing of the writ petition pertaining to admissions under the minority quota. It is needless to state that since the matter pertains to admissions for the present academic year, the high court would consider the same with requisite urgency.”

Background

The controversy is over the admission policy introduced by the University of Delhi in April of last year, which mandated the marks obtained in the Common University Entrance Test as the sole eligibility criterion for admission to colleges under DU. In the last academic year, the varsity and its affiliated college were involved in a legal battle over this policy of admission. St Stephen’s was initially insisting on following an 85:15 formula for non-Christian applicants – and later, for minority as well as non-minority candidates – with 85 per cent weightage given to the result of the entrance examination and 15 per cent to its own interview for admission to its undergraduate courses. The college had cited its status as a minority institution to defend this policy, claiming that it could take autonomous decisions with respect to admissions. On the other hand, while the university conceded with respect to the Christian applicants and accepted the college’s plan to conduct interviews for such candidates, with respect to general category students, the Delhi University was unwilling to budge.

This led to St Stephen’s college filing a petition seeking the quashing of a May 2022 communication issued by DU insofar as it insisted on a hundred percent weightage for CUET 2022 score for admission to undergraduate courses in the general category. Besides this, the college also challenged the communication to the extent that it mandated a single merit list for admission of Christian candidates regardless of any denominations, sub-sects, or sub-categories within the community.

A bench of the Delhi High Court comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad quashed the communication with respect to the single merit list it mandated for all Christian candidates notwithstanding their membership of any denomination, sub-sect, or sub-category. However, on the issue of conducting interviews for non-minority students, the division bench directed St Stephen’s to follow the admission policy formulated for the academic year by the varsity, and that effect, withdraw its admission prospectus and issue a public notice declaring the amended procedure for admission to undergraduate courses. The bench held:

“While the petitioner-college retains its authority to conduct interviews in addition to the CUET for the admission of students belonging to the minority community, it cannot devise a policy that forces the non-minority community to undergo an interview as well. Therefore, the right of the petitioner-college to conduct interviews and accord to them 15 percent weightage for the purposes of admitting students does not extend to non-minority students, and solely pertains to its minority students.”

When the matter travelled to the Supreme Court in appeal, a bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravikumar refused to stay the order of the Delhi High Court directing St Stephen’s college to consider only CUET scores for admission of non-minority students. “We find no reason to stay the operation of the judgement. Application for interim relief is dismissed,” the order read.

As a result of the high court directions, and the apex court’s order, St Stephen’s conducted interviews with 15 percent weightage only for minority students in the last admission cycle. However, this year, the university has made it clear that only CUET marks will be considered for admission to undergraduate and post-graduate courses and that this rule would apply to all categories of candidates, including those belonging to minority communities. On the other hand, St Stephen’s has published its prospectus stating that the 85:15 formula will be followed for minority candidates in this academic year as well, and even challenged this notification in a writ petition in the Delhi High Court.

Case Title

St. Stephen's College v. University of Delhi & Anr. | Civil Appeal No. 7636-7637 of 2022

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