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| Frisday, May 18, 2007
Supreme Court refuses to stay CET abolition
- "We can't interfere this year"
- Petitioner can approach CJ
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to stay the
operation of the Madras High Court judgment upholding the abolition
of the Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to professional
courses in Tamil Nadu.
Considering the fact that admission process had already commenced,
a Bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice P.P. Naolekar said,
"We cannot interfere this year. Admissions will have to
proceed only on the basis of marks in the higher secondary examination."
The Bench after hearing senior counsel Arun Jaitley, Ranjit
Kumar and Kylasnath Pillai, appearing for the petitioner issued
notice to the State Government. The Bench gave liberty to the
petitioner to approach the Chief Justice of India for listing
the matter before the vacation Bench if he wanted early disposal
of the case.
Mr. Jaitley argued that the State had no power to enact the
law abolishing the CET as only the Centre could bring such a
law. Praying for interim stay of the operation of the impugned
judgment, he wanted a direction to the State to conduct the
CET immediately.
Senior counsel, T.R. Andhyarujina, submitted that the law was
enacted after wide consultations with the Medical and Dental
Councils of India, the AICTE, the Union Human Resource Development
Ministry and it received Presidential assent.
The admission process had begun with the issue of application
forms and any interference at this stage would be harmful to
the interests of students.
The Bench agreed with the submissions and refused to stay the
impugned judgment.
The Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions
Act 2006 envisages admission to all professional courses such
as medicine and engineering for 2007-08 on the basis of marks
obtained by students in the higher secondary examination. On
April 27, the High Court dismissed a batch of petitions challenging
this law. The present special leave petition by Minor A.S. Prabhu
is directed against this judgment.
The SLP said the Supreme Court had conclusively decided that
to determine uniform standards in education, admission through
CET was the best method, which had been approved by the Medical
Council of India and the All India Council for Technical Education.
It said, "The notification reveals the unscientific manner
in which admissions are sought to be made even on random allotment,
which is unheard of in the counselling and admission parlance...
"
Courtesy: The Hindu
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