DU Doubles Down Against Stephen’s Interviews; Claims CUET Makes Rationale Redundant, Interview will Result in Discrimination

New Delhi: DU has doubled down its directive to St Stephen's College to discontinue interviews for general admissions. The university claims that the rationale for interviews has become obsolete with the introduction of the CUET and that it will only introduce subjectivity to a formalised process, ultimately leading to discrimination.

DU further informed St Stephen’s, “Prolonging the discussion in this matter any further shall be antithetic to the smooth and timely conduct of admissions and would unnecessarily lead to confusion and inconvenience to the candidates seeking admission, which can simply be avoided”.

The university also stated that admissions made in violation of its regulations will be considered null and invalid. The DU and St Stephen's have clashed over the admission procedure, with the latter insisting on continuing to give 15% weightage to interviews for admissions to all seats at the college level, while the university has repeatedly asked it to admit students to its general seats solely based on CUET scores.

In its interactions with the university, St Stephen’s argued that, as a minority school, it has the right to follow its admission criteria and referred to a 1992 Supreme Court decision that permitted it to continue with its interview procedure.

DU registrar Vikas Gupta wrote in a reply letter to St Stephen's principal John Varghese that the Supreme Court's decision must be “read in the light of the facts and circumstances” of that case and stated that the judgement was passed in the context of admissions conducted through qualifying examination marks of “different institutions of different standards”.

He further wrote,” The judgement has no direct relevance in the changed facts and circumstances as the admissions are going to be done based on the merit obtained by applicants through one standardised, equitable, fair, transparent, nationalised common entrance test (CUET-UG). You would appreciate that adding a score based on an interview to the score which has already been obtained through a standardised statistically robust procedure would introduce subjectivity in the admission process and eventually lead to discrimination, which is not desirable.”

Gupta also cited a subsequent Supreme Court Constitution bench decision in TMA Pai v State of Karnataka, which stated,” The admissions to aided institutions, whether awarded to minority or non-minority students, cannot be at the absolutely sweet will and pleasure of the management of minority educational institutions”.

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