St Stephen's College justifies denial of admission

Updated on: Monday, July 11, 2011

St Stephen's College justified before the Delhi High Court the denial of admission to a Christian student, saying it was constituted for the benefit of minority community members hailing from North India.

"The members of Church of North India (CNI) are the most economically and educationally backward among the Christian community. The foremost purpose of setting up the college by the CNI is for uplifting the students belonging to North
India," the college said in its reply.

The premier college, affiliated to University of Delhi, was asked to respond to the petition filed by advocate Ashok Agarwal for student Nikhil Neil Das.

Das alleged he was denied admission despite the fact that he fell under the reserved quota meant for Christians and also had secured 89 per cent marks in 12th examination.

The college, in its reply filed before Justice Kailash Gambhir, said "the institution has its own admission procedure. The admission procedure sets aside 50 percent seats for Christian students and gives preference to students who belong to CNI."

The student applied under Christian others (COTH) quota and not under the category of CNI, it said.

"He secured 89 percent in best four subjects. Hence, he was below cutoff and failed to qualify for the interview, missing the mark by substantial 1.5 percent or 6 marks as compared to the last candidate called for the interview from his category, which is COTH from science stream," the college said.

Das had applied for admission to BA Economics (Hons) course for academic year 2011-12.

St Stephen's College justifies denial of admission

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