NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has issued a show cause notice to Delhi University (DU) directing its Registrar and Dean of Admissions to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for failing to comply with an earlier court order on equitable postgraduate (PG) seat allocation.
The court also instructed DU officials to appear via video conference on October 15. Justice Dharmesh Sharma, in a strongly worded judgment, expressed disapproval of DU’s delay in implementing the court’s instructions.
“The respondents are guilty of committing wilful disobedience in the nature, deliberately stalling the implementation of the directions of this court,” the order read.
The conflict traces back to a 2022 court ruling when St. Stephen’s College challenged DU’s PG seat allocation, claiming that its Christian minority students were being unfairly affected.
Earlier this year, the court had ordered DU to ensure more equitable PG seat distribution for St. Stephen’s, allowing the college to interview Christian minority students with 15% weightage given to the interview process and 85% to the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores. Despite these instructions, St. Stephen’s claims that DU has not complied, resulting in a reduction of PG seats for the 2024-25 academic year.
During the hearing, senior advocate Romy Chacko, representing St. Stephen’s, argued that DU’s delay harms students, as PG course classes have already begun. Despite submitting CUET and interview scores, the university has not responded, causing what the college describes as “irreparable harm” to the students’ academic futures.
DU, however, defended its stance, maintaining that there is no special quota for Christian minority students in PG courses. While it acknowledged conducting interviews as per the court’s order, DU insists that admissions for non-minority students must be based solely on CUET scores.
The court expressed its frustration over DU’s “stoic silence” on the college’s concerns, accusing the university of settling “their grouses with the management of the petitioner-college, are in virtually playing with the life of the students, which action or deliberate omission is neither acceptable nor sustainable in law.”
This legal battle follows another recent High Court directive, which ordered St. Stephen’s to admit seven students whose admissions were put on hold.
The issue arose over a policy disagreement between Delhi University (DU) and the college, St. Stephen’s college had placed the admissions of 22 students on hold, citing them as “extra allocations.”