HC questions DU over seat dispute with St Stephen’s

New Delhi: Every action by statutory authorities must be backed by some law, Delhi High Court reminded Delhi University on Thursday, questioning the legal basis of the 5% extra supernumerary seats imposed on colleges by the varsity. "You are a central university, and you need to have some statutory backing or resolution of the academic council or executive council. You cannot go only by practice. Every act of a statutory body has to be backed by laws, circulars, or resolutions," a bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said, questioning DU for "unilaterally" asking St Stephen's College to admit students over and above the sanctioned seats. Underlining that it will impact the quality of education, HC said, "If you are asking the college to do so, you are diluting the education standards. If the number of seats goes up, it will affect the quality of education, you are compromising it. Will that be in the interest of students? Prima facie, the university cannot unilaterally ask any college to take admissions over and above the sanctioned strength. Sanctioned strength means what was sanctioned at the time of granting affiliation or recognition to a course in a college." Its comments came while hearing a seat allocation dispute between the college and Delhi University (DU). During the hearing HC said "the issue needs to be decided" if 5% supernumerary seats can be added for each course or for overall seats by DU. The bench said seats couldn't be unilaterally increased as it needed to be ensured that an adequate number of teachers and infrastructure was also available with the college. However, the counsel for DU maintained that it has always been a practice adopted by the varsity to allocate extra students and it is not just limited to St Stephen's College but to other affiliated colleges also. HC was dealing with an appeal filed by Stephen's against a single-judge's order of Sept last year granting provisional admission to seven students on the basis of the seats allocated by the varsity despite the college's refusal. While the college submitted it will accept the students already admitted, it challenged the validity of allocating 5% extra seats for each course by DU, saying the student influx would be unmanageable. HC then asked DU to furnish the statute or resolution relating to the original seat allocation and posted the hearing on Feb 20. Challenging DU's directives, the plea submitted that one seat in each programme in every college is also reserved under the "supernumerary quota for a single girl child."