St Stephen’s challenges HC order granting admission to students

St Stephen’s College has approached a division Bench of the Delhi High Court, challenging a single-judge order that directed the institution to admit seven students whose admissions were stalled due to an ongoing dispute between the college and Delhi University (DU).

College plea

The single judge misunderstood the intent of the CSAS over-allocation policy, claiming it was not meant to create additional seats but was an administrative tool to fill the allotted number of seats. The college claimed the order, passed last week, places an undue burden on its admission process.

The college claimed the order, passed last week, places an undue burden on its admission process.

On Monday, the college's counsel requested a bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, to list the matter for hearing on Tuesday, to which the court agreed.

The appeal comes after Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma's September 6 ruling, which directed St Stephen’s to admit the seven petitioners and upheld the DU’s Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS). The court observed that the CSAS policy, which allows the university to allocate extra seats in initial rounds to ensure the timely commencement of academic sessions, is binding on all affiliated colleges.

Justice Sharma, in the 54-page verdict, also noted that the 13 BA programmes offered by St Stephen’s must be considered separate and distinct for the purpose of seat allocation. However, the court did not rule on the legality of the college’s "single girl child quota".

The college's plea argued that the single judge misunderstood the intent of the CSAS over-allocation policy, claiming it was not meant to create additional seats but was an administrative tool to fill the allotted number of seats. "This is only an administrative convenience and cannot create any additional vested rights for students seeking admission," the plea stated. It further claimed that the varsity, contrary to its agreement, allocated more seats than the college could admit.

Reacting to the college’s appeal, Chamandeep Singh Natt, father of petitioner Gursanjan Singh Natt, expressed frustration to The Tribune, saying, “The college has left us in a dilemma. They won't let us move forward and let our kids attend college, and we can’t go backwards either. We’ve already spent more on legal fees than we would on the college fees.”