Stephen’s insistent on interviews for all candidates, says DU V-C

“We reiterated that we would like 100% weightage to be given to CUET for general students, and 85:15 can be done for minority candidates. But they’ve said they have been following this (holding interviews) for the last 100 years so they want to continue with that,” he said.

Asked if any specific reason was cited for continuing to hold interviews, Singh said, “No. They’ve only said they have the freedom to do so and they want to utilise that… I have asked them to re-think their decision and get back to me. Depending on that, we will make a decision.”

Asked if DU had the authority to overrule Stephen’s if it did not budge from its position, Singh said, “I don’t know. We have to see the constitutional provisions. Since they are claiming that this has been a long practice and they have the freedom to continue with it now also, we are examining that aspect also.”

St Stephen’s College is one of the six minority colleges of DU. It reserves 50% seats for Christian candidates. DU authorities had received a request from St Stephen’s to allow them to hold interviews across all categories. However, Singh had clarified that the college had been communicated they should hold admissions to the general seats only on the basis of the CUET score. For the remaining 50% reserved seats, they could go ahead with the 85:15 ratio.

In its admission policy on its website, the college said “it reserves the right to proceed with admissions as per its own admission policy guaranteed to it as a minority institution and as per past practice”, and it would go ahead with admissions based on 85% CUET and 15% interview score “for all categories of applicants”.