In a major relief for the six students, the Delhi High Court granted them admission to the St Stephens College on Friday, September 6. The students had filed a petition after they were unable to get admitted to the college despite being allotted a seat by DU, due to the ongoing dispute between the college and the varsity of seat matrix.
The court, in its hearing, said that the students were not at fault at any point and yet had to face undue hardships due to the dispute between DU and St Stephen’s College.
“On one hand, the petitioner faced uncertainty and on the other hand also lost the opportunity to apply to another college of their choice. This issue is decided in favour of the petitioners,” the court said.
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Since the bone of contention between the varsity and the college pertained to the allocation of seats, the court said that all the colleges who have grievances regarding seat allocation will file their grievances before the authority three months before the commencement of the admission process and the same will have to be decided within two months of the receipt of the complaint.
The court also said that St Stephen’s contention that the common seat allocation system does not have any “statutory force” is “bereft of merits.”
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“St Stephens has not raised any challenge to the CSAS. The CSAS is binding on all colleges affiliated with DU, and this policy has been in place for years,” the court said.
It also refused to adjudicate on the constitutionality of the single girl child quota, raised by St Stephens. The Court said, “The WP have been filed by students, the scope of this writ is confined to deny of admission to the petitions and court while adjudicating cannot go into the constitutionality of the quota.”
“In case St. Stephen’s was genuinely aggrieved, it should have approached the authority. The college cannot now take a contradictory stand when it has itself adhered to the policy. Allotment made by DU cannot be termed as illegal or arbitrary,” the court added.
It may be mentioned that the Delhi High Court had earlier provided interim relief to the six students granting them provisional admission. The Court said there was no fault of the students who had successfully cleared the CUET exam and other formalities. It added that the students were kept in suspense concerning their admission.
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The students sought admission under Delhi University’s ‘single girl child quota’ provision.
However, on Wednesday, St. Stephen’s College contended before the Delhi High Court that the quota mandated by Delhi University (DU) was violative of the right to equality before the law.
DU’s counsel opposed the submission stating that the objection was never raised before.
Worth mentioning here, DU’s admission bulletin states that one seat in each program should be reserved under the ‘supernumerary quota for a single girl child’ at every affiliated college. To this effect, parents or guardians must declare that the female applicant is the only child, without any siblings.
(With inputs from Shruti Kakkar)
