SC Refuses To Stay HC Order Asking St Stephen's College To Follow DU Admission Policy

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and C T Ravikumar said it was not inclined to interfere with the HC judgement.

Supreme Court of India (Source: File photo/AFP)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday refused to stay the Delhi High Court order asking St. Stephen's College here to follow the admission policy prescribed by Delhi University. A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and C T Ravikumar said it was not inclined to interfere with the HC judgement. “We find no reason to stay the judgement, therefore the application for interim relief is dismissed,” the bench said.

The top court was hearing a plea of St Stephen's College against a Delhi High Court order which asked it to follow the admission policy of Delhi University.

The Delhi High Court had on September 12 asked the Christian minority institution to follow the admission policy formulated by the Delhi University according to which 100 per cent weightage has to be given to the Common University Entrance Test (CUET)-2022 score while granting admission to non-minority students in its undergraduate courses.

The high court had said the college cannot conduct interviews for non-minority category students and that the admission should be as per the CUET score alone.

The high court had also said the rights accorded to a minority institution under the Constitution cannot be extended to non-minorities.

It had said the college has the authority to conduct interviews, in addition to the CUET score, for admitting Christian students but it cannot force non-minority candidates to additionally appear for an interview.

The HC bench, while asking the St Stephen's College to withdraw its prospectus giving 15 per cent weightage to interview for admission against unreserved seats, besides taking into consideration the CUET score of a candidate, had, however, ruled the DU "cannot insist upon a single merit list for admission of candidates belonging to the Christian community regardless of denomination, etc".

The high court's order had come on petitions filed by a law student and the college with respect to the legality of the procedure for admission of students against unreserved non-minority seats for UG courses.

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)