The Supreme Court today, Monday, August 21, refused to interfere with the Delhi High Court’s interim order allowing Delhi’s St Stephen's College to conduct interviews for granting admission to students under the minority quota, reported PTI.
A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and PS Narasimha said any interference at this stage will create further confusion and uncertainty in the admission process.
"Taking note that the impugned order is an interim order passed by the high court in a pending writ petition, at this stage, we see no reason to interfere with the high court order," the bench said.
The apex court also asked the high court to decide the matter expeditiously considering the need for certainty in the matter.
"It may be really late now. There will be more uncertainty. Once the matter is fully settled by the high court, students will know what the situation is," the bench said.
Background
The controversy started when Delhi University’s St Stephen’s College filed a petition against the university’s notice which said that the seats in the Christian quota must be filled purely based on CUET (Common Undergraduate Entrance Test) scores and no interview is required for admissions.
Following this, on July 21, the Delhi High Court permitted the college to conduct interviews for granting admission to students under the minority quota besides taking into consideration their CUET scores. It also permitted Jesus and Mary College to hold interviews for the seats reserved for minority category students.
The court, in its order, observed that in an earlier decision, it has already discussed the extent to which DU can regulate the admission of minority students and ruled that St Stephen's has the right to conduct interviews with 15 per cent weightage for minority students but not for non-minority students.
