Delhi University Vs Stephens College: St. Stephens did not withdraw the prospectus even after DU's objection

The ongoing dispute between DU and St. Stephen's College regarding the admission process is not stopping. Despite DU's objection, the college has not yet withdrawn the admission prospectus.

The college has written in the prospectus that it will adopt CUET (Common University Entrance Test) as the eligibility criteria. In this, 85 percent weightage will be given to the CUET score and 15 percent weightage will be given to the interview. For this reason, the dispute between the two continues.

DU has said that the college will have to take admission in non-minority seats through CUET. The college has already been made clear by the DU administration that the admissions made without CUET will not be recognized by DU. On Monday, DU was asked to remove the college prospectus from the website. But the college has not implemented this till now and the situation remains the same. DU says that issuing such a prospectus of the college violates the guidelines of the DU Academic Council. This has created confusion among the students as well.

All minority colleges agree: DU

The DU administration is repeatedly asking the college to take admission only from CEUT. Other minority colleges agree to take admission through CUET 100%, while only St. Stephen's wants to take admission through CUET and interview. DU says that the college cannot run a separate admission process. He has to follow the admission policy of DU. On the other hand, the dispute between DU and the college has now reached the court. DU says that the effect of reaching the court of this matter will not affect the entrance examination starting from the second week of July.

St. Stephen's College reached the High Court against DU

St Stephen's College has filed a petition in the High Court against the Delhi University's order granting admission to undergraduate courses through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and withdrawing the prospectus issued by the college. The petition will be heard on Friday.

Before Justice Sanjeev Narula, advocate Romi Chacko of the college said that they are conducting interviews with the students seeking admission to the college. This practice has been going on for so many years and it is already allowed. Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, appearing for DU, has filed public interest litigation challenging the college admission criteria by a law student and a notice has also been issued to the college yesterday.

The hearing on this is now fixed for July 6. The counsel for the petitioner college objected to the submission of the ASG. He said that this court has directed the respondent to take directions on the petition. Meanwhile, a Public Interest Litigation was filed to affect the hearing on this petition. Even the petitioner college was not given a copy of the advance notice on the PIL.

The court said that since the case is almost identical, the cases should be heard by a single bench. He transferred the petition before the Acting Chief Justice for hearing there. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Sachin Dutta had on Wednesday issued a notice in a PIL filed by law student Konika Poddar. The PIL has challenged the decision of St Stephen's College to conduct the interview round for admission to the unreserved category for the academic session 2022-23.

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