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| Thursday, July 19, 2007
No CET for law
Supreme Court stays High Court order
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a Madras High
Court judgment that directed the Tamil Nadu Government to hold
a Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to five-year or three-year
courses in the eight law colleges in the State for 2007-2008.
A three-Judge Bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan,
Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice Dalveer Bhandari stayed
the June 19 judgment on a special leave petition (SLP) filed
by the State challenging the judgment.
The Bench, after hearing senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi for
the State and K.M. Vijayan for one of the students, stayed the
operation of the judgment and issued notice to the respondents.
Policy decision
Mr. Singhvi submitted that the State government had abolished
the CET for engineering, medical and other professional courses
and decided to admit students on the basis of marks obtained
in the higher secondary examination. For law courses also a
Government Order was passed in April abolishing the CET.
The High Court had struck down the G.O. and directed the holding
of a CET for admissions to law colleges. He said the government
took the policy decision as the CET system was disadvantageous
to rural students.
There was insufficient time to conduct the CET this year, and
hence admissions should be allowed on the basis of higher secondary
marks, he pleaded.
Stay opposed
Mr. Vijayan opposed the granting of a stay, contending that
the CET system that was in existence for 23 years should continue,
and that the High Court judgment should not be disturbed.
The State in its SLP said: “The Rules made by the Bar
Council of India do not require that admission into law degree
courses shall be made only on the basis of CET. There was no
arbitrariness in the method of selection of students as selection
was done purely on the basis of merit.”
Courtesy: The Hindu
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