Kerala - Kochi   

Order reserved on plea of college managements

Staff Reporter

Petitioners say Act violates interim orders of Supreme Court

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday reserved its order on a petition seeking an interim order for allowing managements of self-financing professional colleges to go ahead with the selection process for filling their 50 per cent management seats.

Justice S. Siri Jagan reserved his order while admitting writ petitions challenging the Kerala Professional Colleges (Prohibition of Capitation Fee, Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Non-exploitative Fee and Other Measures to Ensure Equity and Excellence in Professional Education) Act. When the petition came up for hearing, counsel for the petitioners contended that the State law was an exercise in legislative adventurism. The enactment amounted to violation of the Supreme Court ruling. When the law on self-financing colleges passed in 2004 was challenged before the Supreme Court, it had issued an interim order allotting 50 per cent seats for management quota and 50 per cent for State quota.

Counsel also attacked the conditions set in the new Act for according the status of a minority institution.

Counsel for the State Government submitted that nothing had prevented the State Government from making any special provisions for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the Backward Classes in the educational institutions. The judgment of the Supreme Court in P.A. Inamdar's case was delivered before the 93rd constitutional amendment. Therefore, any observation in the judgment on the impermissibility of reservation for weaker sections in educational institutions could not come in the way of giving effect to the 93rd constitutional amendment. Besides, the validity of the 93rd amendment had not been challenged.

Counsel contended that the minority community had not been put at any disadvantage in the State. Nor had they been discriminated against. So, there was no need to give them any special protection with respect to running educational institutions. The minority communities were running more educational institutions than the non-minority communities. Even the number of students belonging to the minority communities getting admission in professional colleges was very high. So, there was no question of minority community having any sense of inequity or insecurity. Counsel also pointed out that the Supreme Court had not defined what constituted a minority education institution.

Replying to a query from the court, counsel said that the students who had not written the Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted by the Government and were waiting for the test of the managements were hoping to get admission thorough the backdoor. The court would later consider the petitions filed by the S FI, DYFI and other seeking to implead in the case.

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