The Delhi Supreme Court on Wednesday asked for the response of St. Stephen’s College and the University of Delhi to a plea to direct the college to gain admission to its ‘unreserved places’ in undergraduate courses, based only on of grades students have received in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), as directed by the varsity. A bench of acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Judge Sachin Datta have notified St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University and University Grants Commission (UGC) of the petition filed by a law student. The court heard the case on July 6 for further consideration.
The plea of Konika Poddar said her petition is for several students who want to study at St Stephen’s College of Delhi University and will appear in CUET in the near future. The advocacy said that in its meeting on March 22, 2022, the Academic Council has accepted the recommendations of its standing committee regarding CUET as the basis for admission to undergraduate courses from the academic year 2022-23 for all of its colleges, including its minority colleges. such as St. Stephen’s College and there will also be a separate merit list for the unreserved places in minority colleges where admission will be made on the basis of CUET only.
It said the varsity issued its admission policy for the 2022-23 academic year on April 5, and on the last page of the Bulletin of Information, it specifically stated that admission to the unreserved seats in its minority colleges will only be made on the based on grades obtained in CUET while in reserved seats minority colleges may give 15 percent weight to the interview and 85 percent weight to the CUET score at the time of admission.
On April 20, the college refused to follow the instructions of the University of Delhi and issued a press release and admission notice stating that the college will conduct interviews for both reserved and non-reserved seats and give 15 percent weight for interviews and 85 percent weight of CUET marks at the time of admission in its undergraduate courses, according to the plea filed by attorney Akash Vajpai.
It said the college has issued its prospectus for the undergraduate courses for the academic year 2022-23 stating that it will adopt the CUET as the eligibility criteria weighing 85 percent for CUET and the college interview for candidates shortlisted with a 15 percent weight for his unreserved places, which is clearly against the university’s admissions policy. It said, according to some media reports, that the Registrar of the University wrote another letter to the College, warning them that if the prospectus issued by the College is not revoked and makes any admission based on its own admissions policy, the varsity will not accept that admission and they will be treated as null and void.
If the intent of Respondent No. 1 (St Stephen’s College) is to achieve excellence in education, it would suffice for Respondent No. 1 was to select students with minimum required qualification in the name of exercising the right under Article 30 of the Constitution while better students are available to be admitted to the institution… Firstly, there was no previously reservation exclusively for the Christian students in the college but now respondent no. I give 50 percent reservation to Christian students…, was the plea.
It was intended to instruct the college to be admitted to its unreserved places of undergraduate courses only on the basis of grades the students received for their CUET exam, as required by Respondent No. 2 (University of Delhi), it said. The plea also sought direction from the University of Delhi to implement in true letter and spirit its admission policy for the academic year 2022-23 approved by the Academic and Executive Council towards unreserved minority college seats in undergraduate courses.
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