Delhi HC seeks DU's view on Stephen's plea challenging absolute weightage to CUET score for minorities' admission

New Delhi [India], April 27 : The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice on St Stephen's College's plea against the decision of the Executive Council of Delhi University (DU) decision which insists on 100 per cent weightage for CUET 2023 score for admission to the minority quota in the petitioner college.

The bench of Justice Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad on Thursday sought responses from Delhi University and the University Grants Commission (UGC) in the matter and listed it for May 24, 2023, for a detailed hearing.

The plea stated that the impugned decision of the University denying the petitioner College its right to conduct interviews for admission to undergraduate courses in the minority category is contrary to the judgment of the Delhi High Court dated 12.09.2022, which recognized the petitioner's right to select students of minority category by conducting interviews.

It stated that the impugned resolution of Delhi University suffers from total non-application of mind in that it did not advert the basic findings of this court which upheld the right of the petitioner to interview Christian candidates and allocate 15 per cent marks for the same and has acted contrary to the same which is, in fact, a willful disobedience of the judgment of this court and liable to be struck down.

It further stated that the University could not take over the admission of the students under the 50 per cent minority quota, as the same would be and is a clear violation of Article 30 of the Constitution of India.

The Supreme Court in St. Stephen's judgment held that the right to select and admit students is the core of the right under Article 30.

Petitioner college prayed the court to quash the regulation/communication issued by UGC dated 6.4.2022 as ultra vires and unconstitutional to the extent it seeks to apply the same to minority quota seats for the academic year 2023-24 contrary to the

judgement of this Court.

Earlier, in its Judgement, Delhi High Court had directed the college administration to issue a fresh prospectus giving 100 per cent weightage to the CUET2022 score for admission to students belonging to the non-minority category applying to undergraduate courses for 2022-2023.

Previously, the college gave 85 per cent weightage to Common University Entrance Test (CUET) score and 15 per cent to interviews, which is contrary to the new admission process announced by Delhi University.

The Delhi High Court had examined two petitions, one was moved by Stephen College challenging the order of the Delhi University to grant admission in undergraduate courses through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and to withdraw the prospectus issued by the college and the second plea was moved by Monika Poddar, a law student, through a PIL challenging the college's decision to continue with interviews for admission to its general seats.