The Delhi High Court has granted an interim order permitting St. Stephen's College to adopt specific weightage criteria for admissions to its undergraduate programmes.
The court allowed the college to use an 85% weightage for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) score and a 15% weightage for interviews for admission of Christian minority candidates. However, for non-minority candidates, the college will consider only the CUET score as the sole eligibility criterion.
The division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad stated that this arrangement would be an interim measure until the outcome of the college's plea challenging Delhi University's decision to insist on 100% weightage for CUET scores for admission to minority quota seats in the college. The decision came in response to St. Stephen's College's plea challenging the Delhi University's Executive Council's decision and notification issued in December 2022, which the college deemed unconstitutional.
The court referred to its previous decision in "St Stephens College v. University of Delhi & Anr" dated September 12, 2022, where it had recognized the college's right under Article 30(1) of the Constitution. Article 30(1) grants minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. The court had observed that this right cannot be extended to non-minority members and that the state has the right to formulate regulations concerning the administration of a minority institution to ensure the interest of the minority community and prevent maladministration.
Despite the court's observations in the 2022 judgment, the college's Executive Council decided, in a meeting on December 8, 2022, to conduct admissions solely based on CUET scores for minority seats in the academic session 2023-24. The court found a lack of reasoning in this decision and noted a non-application of mind on the part of the respondents.
The Delhi High Court's interim order allows St. Stephen's College to move forward with the specified weightage criteria for the current academic year while awaiting the final resolution of the matter.
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