School national games shooting champions, which are organized by the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) will not make it to the St. Stephen college under the sports quota. However, the college is readily accepting the certificates from the same body in other sports such as basketball.
The college made it clear that it will only accept the certification from the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) and said that only those who will have scores more than 90% in air rifle and 85% in air pistol, out of 400, will be considered under sports quota.
Being a minority college religiously, St. Stephen has its own policies for admission which it follows. The President of the Action Committee has written to the minister of sports and youth affairs Vijay Goel for his intervention in the discriminatory policy adopted by the college as SFGI is a body recognized by the ministry.
“Many students are facing problems on account of the discriminatory policy… The policy adopted by the college is in contravention with DUʼs policy. It is our request to you to kindly take up the matter urgently so that we can save the students from gross injustice…” said the letter from S K Bhattacharya, president of the committee.
However, college authorities said, “The college has been following this rule for several years. To get quality shooters, we have a cut-off. We have no problem in considering the SGFI certificate if they give a score, like the ISSF. We have been conveying this to them for four years but to no avail,” said S K Chakravortty, chairman of the sports admission committee.
About 30-35 students have been affected by the decision of the college.
“It is so surprising. Certificates by the same body apply for basketball, but not for shooting. The college told us they have autonomy for their admission process. Why can't they have same rules for all? This is serious misuse of autonomy,” said Jyoti Arora, a parent whose daughter has certificates from SGFI.