The Hindu : New Delhi News : Supreme Court clears deck for admission without CET

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Thursday, May 15, 2008
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Supreme Court clears deck for admission without CET

J. Venkatesan

Plea against High Court ruling to be heard in July

Counsel for petitioner plead for a scheme till main matter is heard
“State is adopting the same strategy of not filing the counter”

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the decks for the Tamil Nadu government to go ahead with admission of students to professional courses for academic year 2008-2009 without a Common Entrance Test (CET).

Without passing any interim order on a petition challenging a Madras High Court judgment, upholding the abolition of the CET, A Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice M.K. Sharma asked the State government to file its response. It posted the matter for hearing of the main petition in the last week of July.

Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan and Counsel P.R. Kovilan, appearing for petitioner Minor P. Mugila Devi, pleaded for a scheme till the main matter was heard. Mr. Dhavan said even in 2007, the State adopted the same strategy of not filing the counter. This year, too, it was doing the same. Neutralisation of marks (of different boards) was not the correct method when there were a number of students with the same percentage of marks.

Senior counsel T.R. Andhyarujina and Abhishek Singhvi, assisted by Additional Advocate General N. Kannadasan, submitted that the law was approved by the Medical and Dental Councils of India and the All-India Council for Technical Education. Results of higher secondary examinations had been published, and issue of applications for professional courses had commenced. “Practically this year it is not possible to hold CET,” Mr. Andhyarujina said.

Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act, 2006 envisages admission to all professional courses during 2007-08 on the basis of the marks obtained by students in the higher secondary examinations.

On April 27, 2007, the High Court dismissed a batch of petitions challenging this law. The present special leave petition is directed against this judgment.

The special leave petition said the Supreme Court had decided that to determine uniform standards in education, and admission through CET was the best method, which had been approved by the Medical Council of India and the AICTE.

It sought quashing of the judgment and interim stay of its operation.

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