Which of the following has been ranked the best college in the country (2017)…

Concept — The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is the annual ranking system of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (now the Ministry of Education), Government of India, approved in 2015 and first published in 2016. It does not produce one single list: institutions are ranked separately within categories such as Overall, University, Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Medical, Law, Architecture and College. So "the best college in the country" means the institution placed at rank 1 of the College category in that particular year's edition, which is a different list from the Overall or University category.

Every NIRF rank is computed afresh each year from five parameter groups: Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR); Research and Professional Practice (RP); Graduation Outcomes (GO); Outreach and Inclusivity (OI); and Perception (PR). Because the scores are recalculated for every edition, the year stated in a question fixes exactly which edition is being asked about, and the answer can change from one year to the next.

Applying it here — India Rankings 2017, the second NIRF edition, released on 3 April 2017, placed Miranda House, University of Delhi at rank 1 of the College category with an overall score of 69.39. Loyola College, Chennai was placed second in the same College list.

Cross-check — Comparing every college named in the question against that same 2017 College list:

• Miranda House, Delhi: a women's college of the University of Delhi established in 1948, which headed the College category of India Rankings 2017.

• St. Stephen's College, Delhi: a University of Delhi college established in 1881; it did not head the 2017 College list. Public reputation alone feeds only the Perception parameter, which is one of the five NIRF parameter groups.

• Fergusson College, Pune: run by the Deccan Education Society and established in 1885; it was placed 35th in the 2017 College category.

• Maharaja's College, Mysore: a constituent college of the University of Mysore established in 1833; it was not at the top of the 2017 College category.

Therefore the college ranked best in the country in NIRF 2017 is Miranda House, Delhi. Miranda House also retained the top position in the College category in several later NIRF editions, which is exactly why the year qualifier in the question matters when comparing across editions.