The Supreme Court (SC) has clarified that the Delhi High Court (HC) has the freedom to hear a writ petition filed by St Stephen's College against a recent notification by the University of Delhi (DU), reports the LiveLaw. The notification requires all students, including those from minority communities, to be admitted to undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) courses solely based on their scores in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET).
St Stephen's College had appealed against a Delhi HC order from last year that prevented them from conducting interviews for non-Christian applicants. The college had been admitting Christian students based on an 85:15 formula, giving 85% weightage to the entrance examination and 15% to interviews. However, the University of Delhi's recent notification mandates 100% weightage on CUET scores for admission to the minority quota in institutions like St Stephen's.
The Additional Solicitor-General, Vikramjit Banerjee, representing the university and the University Grants Commission (UGC) argued, “Our contention is that the directions of the Delhi High Court pertained only to the last academic year, and not this present one.”
According to LiveLaw, the court deferred the hearing due to certain observations that had implications for the minority quota. However, they stated that they had no problem with the matter being heard either by the Supreme Court or the High Court. Supreme Court then clarified that the Delhi High Court could proceed with the hearing of the writ petition concerning admissions under the minority quota for the present academic year, emphasising the need for urgency.
