HC restrains students from attending St Stephen’s amid admission dispute

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 29

A division Bench of the Delhi High Court on Thursday restrained six Delhi University (DU) aspirants from attending St Stephen’s College, reversing a previous order that had directed the college to provisionally admit them. Instead, the students were allowed to enrol in the institutions which came second in their preference list.

This decision followed an appeal by St Stephen’s College, challenging the August 23 interim judgment by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, who had mandated the provisional admission of the six students and instructed DU to reopen its portal for fee payments specifically for them.

Senior Advocate Romy Chacko, representing the college, argued that admitting the additional students would exceed the institution’s capacity. “We don’t have the infrastructure for it… The university has given an order to grant admission to all 36 students allocated to St Stephen’s, despite our sanctioned capacity being only 50,” Chacko explained.

ACJ Manmohan criticised DU’s handling of the situation, stating, “Why is the university creating this mess? Please tell your university that their conduct has been noted and that better sense will prevail.” Parents of the affected students voiced their concerns. Chamandeep Singh Natt, father of Gursanjan Singh Natt, said, “The college has challenged our kids’ admissions in the Supreme Court, stating a lack of seats. Our children were instructed not to attend classes despite the academic session starting today.” In response, St Stephen’s College Principal, Professor John Varghese, stated in a notice on the college’s website that the institution had admitted the sanctioned number of students plus 5 per cent extra, as agreed with the university.