The Hindu : Front Page : Court annuls key provisions of professional colleges Act

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Friday, Jan 05, 2007
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Court annuls key provisions of professional colleges Act

Staff Reporter

`Government showed undue haste in bringing in the Act'

Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday declared invalid Sections 3, 7, 8(b) and (c) and 10 of 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 2006.

Section 3 prescribed that the admission to all seats except Non-Resident Indian seats in all self-financing professional colleges or institutions be made through the Common Entrance Test conducted by the State.

While Section 7 enumerated the factors to be taken into consideration while fixing the fees to be charged by an unaided professional college, Section 8 (a) and (b) said about the criteria for conferring minority status on unaided minority professional colleges. Section 10 dealt with the reservation in non-minority self-financing professional colleges. The court also declared invalid Rules 10 and 11 that make provisions for freeship to 50 per cent students.

The Bench of Chief Justice V.K. Bali and Justice P.R. Raman made the ruling while allowing a batch of writ petitions challenging the Act.

In its 311-page judgment, the court said the Government appeared to be in extreme hurry in bringing in the Act. It was brought in to fulfil the promise given to the people to regulate the admission to self-financing colleges. The Government had passed the Act without making any deliberations.

The court was of the opinion that self-financing educational institutions, which were imparting quality education, need to be encouraged. In fact, the State Government was unable to impart qualitative and quantitative education to all because of paucity of resources and funds. The Bench observed that unnecessary regulation on such colleges would be counter-productive. Day-to-day monitoring of the institution and chocking them financially might result in their closure. Regulatory measures would do more than good. The endeavour of the State Government was to take over these institutions.

The court held that unaided minority or non-minority institutions had a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(g) and 30(1) of the Constitution to run educational institutions. The admission could be regulated for ensuring the triple test of fairness, transparency and non-exploitative procedure in the matter of admission. The court said there was no need to frame Section 3 arrogating to itself the complete right of admission and procedure since Section 4 (supervisory committee) prescribed foolproof procedure for the triple test. This was "nationalisation of the education" and was "wholly impermissible".

The court also held that the Section on determining factors for conferring minority status as violative of the rights of minorities as envisaged under Article 30(1). The court further observed that once the Christians and Muslims were declared as minority communities in the State, the mere fact that such communities had established more institutions than majority communities in the State could not whittle down the rights enshrined in Article 30(1) of the Constitution.

The court said that Section 7 infringed on the rights of the unaided institutions in the matter of fixing the fee, which was a right guaranteed under Article 19(5) (to practise any profession, trade or business).

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