NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has permitted St Stephen’s College to give 85 per cent weightage to the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and 15 per cent to interviews for admissions under the Christian minority quota.
For non-minority candidates, the College will adopt the marks secured in the CUET alone as the sole eligibility criteria, a bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said in a recent order.
The court also similarly permitted the Jesus and Mary College to hold interviews for the seats reserved for minority-category students.
The high court's direction, which came as an interim measure, was following the challenge of the two colleges against the decision of the Executive Council of Delhi University (DU) and a notification dated December 30, 2022, asking for 100 per cent weightage for CUET scores for minority quota admissions.
The 23-page order pointed out that in an earlier decision, the high court has already discussed the extent to which DU can regulate the admission of minority students and ruled that St Stephen's has the right to conduct interviews with 15 per cent weightage for minority students, but not for non-minority students.
"Despite this observation made by this Court in the aforesaid judgment, the Executive Committee in its meeting dated 08.12.2022 has decided that for the academic session 2023-24, admission to the Undergraduate Programmes shall solely be on the basis of CUET for minority seats also," said the bench, also comprising Justice Subramaniam Prasad.
Appeal on this order is pending before the Supreme Court for adjudication.
It was also referred that last year the high court had observed that Article 30(1) of the Constitution of India is not absolute and the State has the right to formulate regulations concerning the administration of a minority institution to the extent that it is for the furtherance of the interest of the minority community and is in a bid to prevent maladministration of the minority institution.
"However, it also recognises that it is for the minority institution to decide what would be best for the minority community, and for that purpose conducting an interview, which has been held to be free and transparent by the Supreme Court in St. Stephen's College v. University of Delhi, (1992) 1 SCC 558, cannot be said to be contrary to the interest of the minority institution," it read.