The Hindu : National : Unaided college admissions only by entrance test

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Saturday, Aug 13, 2005

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Unaided college admissions only by entrance test

Legal Correspondent

Professional educational institutions may join together and hold a common test: Supreme Court

The single-window system will not cause any dent in the right of minority unaided colleges to admit students of their choice.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday held that admissions to unaided minority and non-minority professional educational institutions should be made only on the basis of a common entrance test.

A seven-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti, referred to the plea made on behalf of the All-India Medical and Engineering Colleges Association for holding a national-level entrance test. It said, "There is nothing wrong in an entrance test being held for one group of institutions imparting same or similar education."

The Bench agreed with the association's submission that a candidate had to purchase admission forms from several institutions and appear for tests at different places on the same or different dates, and there might even be a clash of dates.

The judges said, "If the same candidate is required to appear in several tests, he would be subjected to unnecessary and avoidable expenditure and inconvenience."

Twin objects

To prevent such a situation "institutions situated in one State or in more than one State may join together and hold a common entrance test or the State may itself or through an agency arrange for [the] holding of such test. Such an agency must be one enjoying the utmost credibility and expertise in the matter. This would better ensure the fulfilment of [the] twin objects of transparency and merit. [A] CET is necessary in the interest of achieving the said objectives and also for saving the student community fromharassment and exploitation."

The Bench made it clear that admissions should be done through a single-window system. Such a regulation would not cause any dent in the right of minority unaided institutions to admit students of their choice. Further, if the admitting agency failed to satisfy the conditions, the State itself could conduct such a test for these colleges.

State-level panels will stay

Until the government framed regulations, the committees (headed by retired High Court judges) functioning in the States could oversee admissions to ensure that merit did not become a casualty. The court upheld the constitution of such State-level committees, holding that they were aimed at protecting the interest of students as a whole and also the minorities themselves in maintaining the required standards of education on non-exploitative terms.

Rejecting the demand for abolition of these committees, the court said, "Unless the admission procedure and fixation of fees are regulated and controlled at the initial stage, the evil and unfair practice of granting admission to available seats guided by the paying capacity of the candidates would be impossible to curb."

Other issues for regular Benches

All other issues left untouched might be dealt with by regular Benches, which would take up all the over 100 individual petitions seeking relief.

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