Ensure PG seats allotted to St. Stephen's College are not disproportionately low: Delhi High Court to DU

The Delhi High Court recently ordered the University of Delhi (DU) to ensure that the post-graduate (PG) seats allotted to the St. Stephen’s College is not disproportionately low [St Stephen's College v University of Delhi and Ors]. .Justice C Hari Shankar asked DU to consider framing a policy or guidelines for allotment of seats for PG courses among various colleges.“Among other considerations, the DU may consider, in deciding on the number of PG seats to be allotted, the infrastructure available with the concerned College, and the number of UG students in that course of study admitted in the College,” the Court said.However, it clarified that these are merely suggestions and that DU is at liberty to adopt any objective criterion as it deems fit in that regard..The Court further said St. Stephen’s College can subject minority candidates seeking admission to its PG courses to interview and allocate 15% marks to interview with 85% being allocated to CUET score, but the same cannot be done for non-minority students.“Non-minority students would, however, not be subjected to any interview for admission to PG courses in the petitioner college. Their admission would solely be on the basis of their CUET score,” the Court ordered. .Justice Hari Shankar passed the directions while dealing with a plea filed by St. Stephen’s College alleging that while allotting seats for admission to PG courses in colleges affiliated to it, the DU was allotting a disproportionately small number of seats to the petitioner college.St. Stephen’s argued that there were no objective guidelines governing the allotment of PG seats amongst colleges and because of this, the DU enjoys absolute and hegemonic control over the decision of the number of PG seats to be allocated to any particular college affiliated to it.It said that DU has taken this approach against St. Stephen’s College because the college is not willing to co-opt representative of the university into its Selection Committee and also because the petitioner college used to subject PG candidates to an additional interview..The Court considered the case and noted that the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court had already ruled that St Stephen’s College cannot subject non-minority students to interview for admission in undergraduate (UG) courses but can continue to allot 15% weightage to interview marks in case of minority students.The counsel appearing for St Stephen’s said that since the issue is now pending before the Supreme Court, the college would not adopt an interview process for non-minority students applying for PG courses as well.DU said that it has no objection to the stand and that it will ensure that the allocation of PG seats to St Stephen’s is not disproportionately less as compared to other colleges.“In view of the said statement, it is not necessary for this Court to enter in merits into the aspect of the reasonability of the method of allocation of seats in the PG courses, by the DU,” the Court said finally..Advocates Romy Chacko, Shakti Chand Jaidwal, Prashant Kumar and Sachin Singh Dalal appeared for St Stephen’s College.Delhi University was represented by advocates Mohinder JS Rupal and Hardik Rupal..[Read Judgment]