The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : State asked to follow education quota norms

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Thursday, Apr 10, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

State asked to follow education quota norms

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday informed the State Government that it is bound by the rule of law and Supreme Court decisions on reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes (SC), Schedules Tribes (ST) and backward class (BC) students for professional courses.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice Ravi Malimath made this oral observation when it was dealing with a petition by Swetha S. and another student, challenging a Government Order (GO) of July 1, 2006, relating to selection of SC, ST and BC candidates for Government seats in professional courses.

The petitioners said though ST, SC and BC candidates had scored high marks and are eligible for allotment of seat by the Common Entrance Test (CET) for MBBS, BE and BDS courses, they were being denied a seat under general merit category and were being offered seats under reservation.

. They urged the court to quash the GO.

The Bench orally observed that the rule of the land and Supreme Court judgments had made it clear that students belonging to reserved category would have to be allotted merit seats if they scored high marks.

The Bench said the State Government would have to follow this norm while allotting seats. It, however, asked the Government advocate to clarify the stand of the State on the issue and inform the court by April 15.

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