Working out the mathematics behind the percentile system on Friday, Bombay High Court told the state government
Working out the mathematics behind the percentile system on Friday, Bombay High Court told the state government, “Your object may have been bona fide but the way you are doing it is unfair.” The judges also said, “You could have derived a formula that did not disturb the students.”
Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice AP Deshpande had questioned the government as to why the average of only the top 10 students was considered.
The formula to arrive at a percentile is based on the average percentage of the 10 toppers of each board. For instance, an ICSE student’s percentage is divided by the average percentage of the top 10 ICSE students and then multiplied by 100 to arrive at a percentile.
However, taking into account the average of top 100 students of each board, the ICSE students had an edge over SSC students. The judges then asked that if the “magic number 10” was arrived at only to benefit SSC students.
Arguing for the ICSE student, senior counsel Navroz Seervai said, “It is a totally disproportionate percentile system.” Citing an example of the SAT exam that students take for undergraduate courses in American universities, Seervai said that a system like this was feasible only if all students were taking the same exam.
Senior counsel Raju Subramaniam pointed out that the resolution passed by the government differed from the original decision to collectively consider the average of the toppers of all three boards. “The purpose of the system is not normalisation, but something collateral,” he said.
Additional government pleader Jyoti Pawar said that the percentile system had been implemented and 90 per cent of the admissions were already over.
The court had earlier also questioned the government as to who would be given preference if two candidates had the same rank. In response, Pawar said that in such a case, as per a government resolution (GR) of 1997, the candidate living nearest to the institution would be given preference. The court has, however, asked for Supreme Court judgements that upheld the GR.
The court has also sought the percentage marks of top 100 students of all three boards and asked the counsels to give “actual examples”.
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