On Monday, the Delhi High Court ruled in favor of admitting 18 Christian students to St Stephen’s College at Delhi University (DU), allowing them to start attending classes from Tuesday. This decision came in response to a petition filed by the college seeking directions for DU to approve and upload the list of Christian candidates it had forwarded.
St Stephen’s had requested that DU open its fee-payment portal for 19 Christian students. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, who presided over the case, expressed satisfaction that 18 of these students were eligible for admission based on their merit. The court acknowledged that DU had already confirmed the eligibility of 14 students for the Bachelor of Arts (BA) programme through its affidavit.
The court emphasized that the students involved in this litigation are simply individuals seeking educational opportunities, regardless of their minority or non-minority status. Justice Sharma highlighted the students’ rights, stating that “whether they are minority or non-minority is of no value” and that they are all proud citizens of the country.
The case concluded on a positive note, with 18 of the 19 students securing admission to their preferred college. DU had initially opposed these admissions, arguing that St Stephen’s College allocated seats outside of the established seat matrix. However, the college maintained that its admission of the students was within its “sanctioned intake” and did not exceed permissible limits.
