Bombay high court to bring order in college admission chaos

The suspense over the fate of students entering junior college this year may come to an end on Wednesday with the Bombay high court set to pronounce its verdict in the case challenging the state government’s best-of-five rule for SSC students.

In the battle of the boards — SSC (Secondary School Certificate) vs ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) — that started in 2008 with the percentile system and continued with the 90:10 policy for junior college admissions in 2009, whether the Maharashtra government will be third-time lucky will be known after the court’s decision.

A day before the verdict, the counsels for the warring sides were sharpening their arguments.

While advocate-general Ravi Kadam said the best-of-five rule was not discriminatory, ICSE’s counsels Raju Subramaniam and Naushad Engineer said the reality was the opposite. The ICSE case is against the state enforcing the rule through a government resolution (GR) on February 25 following it up with two corrigenda on June 14 and 16. Under the rule, the percentage of SSC students is calculated by taking into account five of six subjects in which they have secured the highest marks.

The case was filed by parents of 21 ICSE students who say the rule gives SSC students an unfair advantage by “artificially enhancing” their percentage of marks. Kadam said: “The rule is just a relaxation of rigour for state board students. ICSE could have done the same (for its students).”

Subramaniam and Engineer said: “If the state says it is ready to give us the benefit of the best-of-five rule, we have no problem. But let them say that first. Otherwise their GR has to go.”    

Subramaniam said that at the time of striking down the government’s 90:10 rule, reserving only 10% of junior college seats for ICSE students, the court had directed the government that it should consult other boards before framing policies for junior college admissions.

Senior counsel for the ICSE petitioners, RA Dada, argued that as a result of the best-of-five rule - for which the state did not consult the other boards — the number of SSC students who have scored over 90% — 13,500 — has doubled since last year.

But Kadam said the rule was an independent decision of the SSC board and that the court’s judgment in the 90:10 case put no bar on the state government to take decisions for SSC students. He said each board decides for itself, and the government need not consult other boards to take internal decisions.

“Who has stopped the ICSE board from doing this? You (ICSE) cannot control the working of every board,” Kadam said. “The National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) permits the granting of such a norm (best-of-five), and there is no malafide intention of the state in its legislative function.”

Justice JN Patel said: “In the third round of litigation, you (ICSE) have not come up with any solution.” Kadam said ICSE, an autonomous board, has evolved a standard of their students passing in five out of seven subjects.

He said the GR was widely publicised and ICSE should have been vigilant to contest the decision sooner. “They have missed the bus,” Kadam said. “Now they can come next year.”