Allotment of seats to St. Stephen’s: High Court summons DU Registrar

The Delhi High Court has found Delhi University (DU) guilty of committing “wilful disobedience” of its order by reducing the allocation of seats in postgraduate (PG) courses to St. Stephen’s College compared to previous years.

Justice Dharmesh Sharma has ordered the Registrar and the Dean of Admissions at DU to appear before the court through videoconferencing on October 15 and “show cause why they should not be punished in accordance with the law”.

The order was passed on October 7 on a contempt petition filed by St. Stephen’s College alleging disobedience of the directions passed by the court on April 22 this year, asking the university to ensure that allocation of PG seats in the minority college is “not disproportionate”.

Senior advocate Romy Chacko, appearing for St. Stephen’s College, argued that despite the court’s clear mandate, the number of seats allocated to the college has been reduced from 37 in 2021-22 to 18 in 2024-25.

Mr. Chacko said DU has again allocated an “extremely low” number of seats to the minority college in comparison to the other institutions.

He said a list of 36 candidates belonging to the minority Christian community, which has been forwarded to DU, was also not considered.

The counsel for DU had argued that there is no quota for minority Christian students in the PG courses.

The court remarked that while DU’s claim — that there is no quota for minority students in the PG programmes — “is valid”, the issues highlighted by Mr. Chacko “raise a different concern”.

Published - October 09, 2024 01:01 am IST