A Delhi University (DU) committee has found that St Stephen’s College violated the university’s prescribed criteria for shortlisting candidates for assistant professor interviews, allegedly calling more applicants against what is permitted, people aware of the matter said on Sunday.
The five-member panel, headed by professor Inder Mohan Kapahy, examined the college’s recruitment process and concluded that it had breached the university’s revised 2024 standard operating procedure (SOP), according to a report, accessed by HT. In a statement dated April 29, the university said the college was shortlisting 70 candidates per unreserved vacancy, against the prescribed limit of 40 for the first vacancy and 20 for each subsequent one. Under the guidelines, applicants are assessed on a 100-point academic performance indicator scale. The screening committee must rank candidates in descending order of merit, with those scoring fewer than 55 marks ineligible for shortlisting. The panel’s report said the college called more than 75 candidates for interviews for vacancies in each of these subjects, exceeding the university’s prescribed shortlisting limits.
HT reported in April that DU’s executive council had constituted a committee to investigate alleged irregularities in appointments at the college, citing discrepancies between its shortlisting criteria and university regulations. The committee concluded that the college had made appointments in violation of the shortlisting criteria approved by DU’s statutory bodies, allegedly to accommodate candidates who would otherwise have been ineligible for consideration by the selection committee. Candidates from the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and persons with benchmark disabilities (PwBD) categories receive a five-mark relaxation.
“A notice on the college’s website stated that 70 candidates would be shortlisted for each unreserved vacancy for the post of assistant professor,” the report said.
