New Delhi, Sep 25 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with an interim decision of the Delhi High Court allowing Delhi University to offer admissions to the five-year integrated law courses based on the Common Law Admission Test 2023 result for the current academic year 2023-24.

A Bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra dismissed the Special Leave Petition seeking directions for implementation of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores for admission to the newly-introduced five-year law course in Delhi University (DU).

“We are not going to stall the process now. It is an interim order of the High Court where it allowed admission for this year on the basis of CLAT. It is not an unfair order,” the Bench said.

It said that from next year, if the petitioner succeeds before the HC, admission will be based on CUET scores. In his plea, the petitioner had argued that the object of National Education Policy (NEP) is to have an inclusive entrance examination and around 15 central universities have already decided to take admissions in five-year law programmes through CUET scores in accordance with a directive given by the UGC.

On September 18, Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula of the Delhi HC had passed the interim order keeping in mind that classes have already begun for the current academic year in all other universities.

The High Court is considering a broader question whether CUET should be mandatory for admissions in all Central Universities or if they should have the freedom to make decisions in the matter of admissions.

In the High Court, the Centre had contended that CUET is not compulsory for admission in Central Universities as they enjoy autonomy in the matter of admission.

However, the UGC had taken a different stand and submitted that it is mandatory for all the Central Universities to adhere to the CUET score for admission to UG or PG courses.