Court intervenes after student denied admission under Christian quota

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice to Delhi University and St. Stephen's College for denying seat to a student who sought admission under the Christian quota.

The notice was issued by a bench of Justice Manmohan Singh in response to a petition filed by Nikhil Neil Das.

Das, who had secured 89% marks in Class 12, was applying for admission to BA Economics (Hons) course for the academic year 2011-12.

In his petition, he alleged that the college had "unconstitutionally" set a criteria of admission to benefit candidates who were members of the Church of North India (CNI). Das is not a member of the CNI.

Das' counsel Ashok Aggarwal said 40 percent seats in the course were reserved for students belonging to Christian community. Aggarwal termed the college's action as "discriminatory" despite the student fulfilling the eligibility criteria.

He said there was no mention of a different cut-off of marks within the Christian community while submitting the application.

The petition was filed under article 226 of the Constitution saying that Das being a Christian and having the required marks should be given admission in the college as per reserved quota meant for the community members.

"The cutoff prescribed for the Science students in the best of four subjects are: Christian (Others) : 90.5 per cent, CNI & CNI-D : 81.5 per cent," Aggarwal contended.

"There is wide difference of nine per cent between the qualifying percentage for admissions of ordinary Christians and the Christians who belong to North India Church college," UNI quoted Aggarwal saying.

St Stephen's College received around 21,000 applications for admission this year. The interviews began on June 20 and will continue till July 4.