Chief justice JN Patel and justice SC Dharmadhikari adjourned the hearing of a petition filed by 21 parents of ICSE students from Mumbai and Pune after the petitioners’ counsel Rafiq Dada sought time to amend the plea.
Junior college admissions have been further delayed with the Bombay high court on Friday extending to June 22 an interim order restraining the state from starting the process.
A division bench of acting chief justice JN Patel and justice SC Dharmadhikari adjourned the hearing of a petition filed by 21 parents of ICSE students from Mumbai and Pune after the petitioners’ counsel Rafiq Dada sought time to amend the plea.
Dada told the court that the petitioners want to challenge the February GR (government resolution) which introduced the best-of-five rule for the state board. Under the rule, the percentage of an SSC student is calculated by talking into account five (out of six) subjects in which he or she has scored the most marks.
The petitioners argue that the rule “artificially enhances” the percentage of SSC students, and gives them an edge over students of other boards. But the state government has justified the rule in its affidavit, filed by SP Khorgade, under secretary, department of school education and sports. The affidavit says there is no bar on the ICSE board to adopt the same policy for its students. The state has contended that there is disparity in the marking systems of the state, CBSE and ICSE boards.
While ICSE authorities and parents are crying foul over the best-of-five rule, the state board says the policy is for more than 2.5 lakh students, not just 4,000 (the number of ICSE students in the state).
Perin Bagli, secretary, ICSE Schools Association, Mumbai, said: “I saw students from our schools in court today. Are they at the age when they should be doing the rounds of courts? They were so anxious!
“Even students who scored 90% are worried about getting selected in colleges of their choice now that so many state board students have an edge due to the best-five rule. We don’t want SSC students to suffer; we just want parity with them.”
But SG Chitale, director, Bhavan’s College, and who is part of the online admission committee, said: “Around 4,000 students from ICSE board schools are holding more than 2 lakh students to ransom with the court case. The state board, an autonomous body, can take decisions only for its own studkents, not for those of other boards.
“In ICSE, environment education is not a graded subject, like it is in SSC. Also there are other subjects, like physical education, which are marked. ICSE students score high with these subjects. So how are we wrong in counting only the best five subjects, that too core subjects?”
—With inputs from Yogita Rao
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