The Hindu : Front Page : CET abolition case in Supreme Court

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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CET abolition case in Supreme Court

J. Venkatesan

SLP likely to be mentioned today for early hearing.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has been moved on Tuesday questioning the Madras High Court judgment upholding the abolition of Common Entrance Test for admission to professional courses in Tamil Nadu.

The special leave petition filed by Minor A.S. Prabhu against the April 27 judgment is likely to be mentioned on Wednesday for early hearing.

The Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act 2006, which received Presidential assent on March 3, envisages admission to all the professional courses such as medicine and engineering for 2007-08 on the basis of marks obtained by the students in the higher secondary examination.

The High Court dismissed a batch of petitions challenging this law and the present SLP by one of the students is directed against its judgment.

The petitioner contended that the impugned legislation was violative of Articles 14 (right to equality) and 21 (right to life and liberty) of the Constitution as the methods of `normalisation' for finding the `relative marks' of the students in different streams of study would create more inequality.

He said the Supreme Court had conclusively decided that to determine uniform standards in education, admission through the CET was the best method, which had been approved by the Medical Council of India and the All India Council for Technical Education.

Because the number of students getting 100 per cent in core subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology was more, taking qualifying marks in the higher secondary would not resolve the tie between equally meritorious students.

The SLP said that the High Court while upholding the law had exceeded its authority by considering irrelevant, extraneous and extravagant factors such as social justice instead of relying on constitutional principles.

It said that as per the notification issued the distribution for application forms for admission was due to begin on May 16 and counselling process was scheduled to commence on July 9.

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