HC allows St. Stephen’s, Jesus and Mary College to conduct interviews for reserved seats

The Delhi High Court has allowed St. Stephen’s College and Jesus and Mary College to retain their criteria — of giving 15% weightage to the interview and 85% weightage to the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) score — for admitting minority students to their undergraduate courses.

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The Delhi High Court has allowed St. Stephen’s College and Jesus and Mary College (JMC) to retain their criteria — of giving 15% weightage to the interview and 85% weightage to the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) score — for admitting minority students to their undergraduate courses. The two minority colleges reserve half their seats for Christian students.

The admissions for the unreserved category students will be conducted solely on the basis of their CUET score, the court clarified.

Following the court’s decision, St. Stephen’s and JMC extended the deadlines for filling up the admission forms to July 30 and 31, respectively. Advocate Romy Chacko, who represented JMC, said minority students could now apply directly to the colleges. The university had set July 26 as the deadline for filling up forms for its undergraduate programmes for the current academic session.

The court’s July 21 order came on pleas by the two colleges challenging the December 8, 2022, decision of the executive council of Delhi University (DU), insisting on 100% weightage for the CUET scores for admission to the minority quota seats.

A two-judge Bench said the state has the right to formulate regulations concerning the administration of a minority institution to the extent that it is done in furtherance of the interest of the minority community.

“However, it is for the minority institution to decide what is best for the minority community,” it added.