The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Medical admission petitions keep court busy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 26, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Medical admission petitions keep court busy

By A. Subramani

CHENNAI, JUNE 25. Even a month after the first writ petition against counselling and admission to medical courses was filed in the Madras High Court, there is no let-up in students and parents approaching court with a range of pleas.

Faced with the prospect of a host of similar writ petitions being filed by discontented parents, the Madras High Court today ruled that interim orders passed so far were clear enough.

Soon after the dust settled on the battle over non-valuation of 22 ambiguous questions in the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination (TNPCEE), a student moved the High Court challenging the practice of treating marks scored by students in `improvement examination' on a par with those obtained by regular Plus Two students. Admitting the petition, Justice R. Balasubramanian directed selection authorities to reserve a seat for the petitioner-student. The order seems to have opened a floodgate, with tens of writ petitions with similar prayer being filed the very next day.

Observing that seats cannot be reserved in all cases, the judge, on June 23, permitted counselling to go on but restrained the authorities from publishing the final selection list "without further orders of the court."

The next day, the Advocate-General, N.R. Chandran, rushed to court pressing for a suitable modification to the order so that the selection committee could go ahead with counselling and allotment of colleges for regular students. Modifying his earlier order, the judge said the injunction on allotment of colleges would be applicable only to improvement candidates. When the matter seemed settled, at least for the time being, more students came to court today alleging that authorities were discriminating between those who took the improvement test for Plus Two subjects and those who sat for improvement examination for the TNPCEE.

However, Mr. Justice Balasubramanian declined to pass more interim orders today, saying "my order (dated June 24) is clear enough." Also, an `improvement candidate' was impleaded as party to the current proceedings, paving the way for more such candidates coming to court on their own.

For the second day today, there was confusion in the Directorate of Medical Education as parents and students protested against the delay in the commencement of counselling in the morning.

No grievance cell

Academics say poor grievance redress mechanism at the counselling centre, coupled with education administrators being inaccessible to parents, is the reason why agitated parents rushed to court to keep their immediate interests alive. Once an interim order, asking the authorities to reserve a seat for petitioner-students or to permit them to participate in counselling, is obtained, their immediate objective of remaining in the race for the seat is served. Whether one gets a seat in the final count or not hinges purely on the outcome of the writ petition, which may reach even the portals of the Supreme Court. Due to the high cost and reputation involved in securing medical admission, parents are ready to run the full length before considering other options. The collateral risk is having to join a course in the middle of an academic year or not having much time to apply for other good courses. But all these have not stopped many more to move court, say lawyers, pointing out that many more issues such as improper revaluation and reservation ceiling are yet to be settled.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News Update

Stories in this Section

Medical admission petitions keep court busy

Karnataka High Court declines to depute officials

Consortium committed breach of faith: panel

Deemed varsities get undue advantage: unaided colleges

Now Vijaykant bears the brunt of PMK wrath

Pennalur accident brings to fore hazards of chemical transport

Poor awareness of law on possession of wild animals

PMK office gutted, tension at Kurinjipadi

Unable to pay donation, boy attempts suicide

Kshatriyan film rolls taken away

Sthupi in memory of Kanchi Paramacharya

Briefly