Maharashtra government to approach Supreme Court on 'Best of 5'

Junior college admissions have been effectively postponed by at least two more weeks, leaving the fate of nearly 16 lakh students hanging in balance till then. Reason: the Maharashtra government has decided to appeal against the Bombay high court’s verdict in the SSC best-of-five case in the Supreme Court (SC). The SC is on vacation till July 5 and the earliest it can give a verdict is around July 10.

Under the best-of-five rule, SSC students were to be granted admission in junior college on the basis of the highest marks obtained by them in five subjects, thus artificially boosting their overall percentage score. The Bombay high court struck this down as the formula violates article 14 of the constitution, which guarantees equality of treatment, by discriminating against similarly situated students.

The government took the decision to appeal on Thursday at a high-power meeting headed by chief minister Ashok Chavan. “The SC will resume on July 5 after vacations. We will file our appeal on the first day of the court’s resumption after due preparation. Looking at the urgency of the case, we are sure the court will give its ruling in five days. Till then, we have stalled the admission process,” Chavan said.

An education department official said the government will present a stronger case this time around. He said the government did not do its homework properly in defending the case in the high court. “The advocate-general has suggested we should strengthen the argument and substantiate our stand. He also said the education department should take into consideration the strictures passed by the court last year.

“The department failed to make a proper case before the high court. Even the GR (government regulation) issued by the department on the best-of-five rule was rectified three times. This irked the court.”

The government admitted that it did not take the opinion of legal experts or officials from its law and justice department before introducing the best-of-five rule. Education minister Balasaheb Thorat said the state school education board had the responsibility of checking the legal aspects of coming up with the rule. “It’s an autonomous body with its own machinery of assessing the legality of a decision. When it proposed the rule after it was passed unanimously in its governing body, the state government just went ahead with the implementation.”

Chavan said that henceforth the government will check on the legal aspects of any ordinance. However, he did not accept that the prevailing mess in the junior college admission scene is the result of not having a full-time education minister. “There are many ministers with three or four portfolios, and they are capable of handling the responsibility. Thorat is handling both his portfolios well.”

SSC board students are happy with the state government’s decision to go into appeal over the high court’s order, notwithstanding the admission process getting delayed. They just hope the government prepares a strong case.

“Hopefully, they will get better advocates and put forth stronger arguments,” said Shubham Sanap, a student of Children’s Academy, Ashok Nagar.
“We are keeping our fingers crossed,” said Rohit Bhatt, principal, Children’s Academy, Malad. “The students have waited this long, and are willing to wait longer. Otherwise all their efforts will go waste.”

With inputs from Puja Pednekar and Yogita Rao