St.Stephen's to continue with interview process, urges DU to avoid creating unpleasant situation for students

The St.stephen's asserted that it will retain its tried and trusted interview process during the admission and all the candidates will have the same admission procedures, without any discrimination.

St.Stephen's to continue with interview process, urges DU to avoid creating unpleasant situation for students

St.Stephens college has requested Delhi University to abide by the 1992 Supreme Court judgment and avoid creating an unpleasant situation for all those students who are looking forward to taking admission to the college. The St.stephen's asserted that it will retain its tried and trusted interview process during the admission and all the candidates will have the same admission procedures, without any discrimination.

DU administration has earlier sent a letter to St. Stephen's Principal stating that if the college goes ahead with its own admission criteria, the varsity will not recognize those admissions and will declare them null and void for violation of the Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET) guidelines.

In a letter to DU Registrar Vikas Gupta, St. Stephen's college principal John Varghese stated that suddenly forgetting the process that the college has followed and which the University has approved for the last four decades and more is strange indeed.

"The decision was taken by the college to retain it's stellar tried and trusted interview process and other related steps in the admission process shall continue. All candidates who apply to the college shall face the same admission procedures, without discrimination,"  Varghese said.

"St Stephen's College as a Christian minority institution has its admission procedures approved by the highest court in the land and guaranteed by the Constitution of India. I feel that you have not taken into consideration this important judgment, which incidentally, was brought up by a similar situation back in the 80's between DU and the College," the letter stated as reported by NDTV.

He further said that disrespecting the judgment will amount to contempt of court. "This is neither becoming of a central university nor does it set forth a proper precedent. In deference to the judgement of the highest court in the land," he wrote.

St. Stephen's college has recently released the prospectus for the undergraduate courses 2022-23  and as per that 85 per cent weightage will be given to CUET and the college's interview for shortlisted candidates will be given a weightage of 15 per cent.

While mentioning the same, the principal wrote in the letter that the "Prospectus of the College for Admissions 2022-2023 was uploaded taking into consideration our obligations, duties, rights and privileges as one of the premier educational institutions in this country".

The St. Stephen's decision to conduct interviews for all categories and award 15 per cent of weightage to it was strongly opposed by DU, which wants interviews to be held only for the reserved category students.

Read More:

• CUET 2022: DU asks St Stephen’s to withdraw 15% interview Weightage for UG Admissions
• CUET-PG 2022: JNU, PU, CUPB issues notifications for admissions