SC judge recuses from St Stephen College case

In a matter connected with St Stephen's College, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud of the Supreme Court on Monday recused himself from the hearing, stating he graduated from the college in 1979.

Observation from the judge came during the hearing of appeal, challenging the Delhi High Court's July 17 judgement dismissing a plea alleging discrepancies in the cut-off marks for Christian students, falling under reserved categories, which was notified by the college.

Justice Chandrachud said let this matter go before some other Bench. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for the petitioner said he had no issues if the judge was willing to hear the matter.

A petition, filed by professor of the college Nandita Narain, in the High Court alleged inconsistency in the cut-offs for non-Christian SC/ST and physically handicapped (PH) applicants.

The plea said on June 26 the college notified illegal cut-off marks for various courses for Christian students belonging to ST, others and PH categories. On July 2, the college issued a corrigendum, which reduced the cut-offs in some courses but the same was not made public.

The petition urged the court to direct the college to amend these inconsistencies and then allow correct number of Christian and non-Christian students, belonging to various reserved categories. The petitioner asked the court to quash the June 26 notification and thereafter rework and then re-notify the cut-offs.

The high court in July observed that the petition lacked merit and the college had taken note of all factors required to decide on the number of students selected for the written test and interview for courses, which included the reserved quotas.

( With inputs from IANS )