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The court also struck down the varsity for allocating more students to the university than the approved number (Representative/File Photo)
The school stated that this move was for convenience because it does not usually accept all students for admission, resulting in some seats being vacant.
The Delhi High Court said excessive seat allotment in colleges will not only burden the limited infrastructure but also harm the ability of colleges to provide quality education to students.
The court came to this argument while dealing with the contention of St. Stephen's College that Delhi University did not allocate students as per the sanctioned admissions but made excessive seat allotment.
According to the school, this is for convenience because typically, all students are not accepted, leaving some seats unfilled.
“This Court further finds that the appellant’s (Stephens College) argument that the University is overfunded has not been specifically rebutted by the University.
“The court wants the university to realize that excessive seat allocation in the college will not only burden the existing limited infrastructure but also harm the ability of the college to provide quality education to students. Such conduct may also jeopardize the careers of young students,” Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gotra said.
The order was passed on Thursday and uploaded to the court website on Friday.
The division bench was hearing an appeal filed by the college challenging a bench's interim order directing provisional admission to six students on the basis of allotment to the varsity.
The bench said that while the August 23 order of the single judge provided for grant of provisional admission to these students, the bench was of the view that the order actually satisfied the relief sought by them in the main petition.
However, it moved up the hearing date of the petition pending before the single judge from September 11 to September 5 and said the six students will not be allowed to attend classes until the plea is decided.
“Since the final hearing before the Single Judge has been expedited and in the interest of equity, this court directs that respondent Nos. 1 to 6 (six students) shall not attend the courses of the Appellant College until the writ petition is disposed of,” the bench said. explain.
During the hearing, senior advocate Romy Chacko, representing the college, said the institution was highly sought after and students assigned to different courses of study generally accepted the courses on offer and the number of vacancies after the initial assignment Little or nothing.
He said that after protests against the policy, the university agreed to limit overfunding to 5% per program.
Senior lawyers said that contrary to what was promised, more students were allocated to the varsity.
Advocate Mohinder JS Rupal, appearing for the university, said the varsity was allotted only 5 per cent additional seats in the non-reserved category of the college.
The court also revoked the varsity's status because it assigned more students to the college than the approved number.
“Universities have to understand that they are playing with students' careers. You are not playing a game of chess that you are content with. This is a very serious matter,” the divisional judge commented verbally.
It added, “Don't do this to students, it will affect their careers. Tell the universities that this is not good. We hope better sense will prevail. Sole judge granted remission to six undergraduate candidates , while noting that they have passed the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and completed other formalities.
(This report has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from United News Agency-PTI)
