5 Reasons Why Bombay High Court Cancelled Common Entrance Test for Junior College Admissions

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday quashed the Maharashtra Government's notification to conduct a Common Entrance Test (CET) for students from all boards seeking junior college or class XI admissions in Maharashtra. A division bench of Justices RD Dhanuka and RI Chagla directed the State to, instead, complete the admission process based on marks secured by standard X students through the evaluation method/internal assessment adopted by various boards within six weeks. "The rights to get admission in the First Year Junior College granted to the students passing Xth examination from other Boards cannot be taken away by imposing a condition that would treat them unequally with the students having passed Xth examination from respondent State Board." The Court cited the following reasons for allowing the petition:-1. The State Government couldn't have issued such a notification According to rule 79(1) framed under the Maharashtra Secondary and Higher Secondary Boards Act, 1965, a student from any board who has passed std 10 is eligible for junior college admission if English was one of the five subjects. The bench held that the State Government cannot impose any additional condition (CET) to grant admission, affecting their eligibility criteria contrary to the Act. In our view, since the said MSHSB Act and the said Regulations are already in place prescribing the conditions for grant of admission to the first year of junior college to the students having passed Xth standard examination from other Boards and for their eligibility, no such executive order under Article 162 of the Constitution of India contrary to such legislation can be issued by the State Government2. Only one student was aggrieved Rejecting the State's argument that the petition was not maintainable as only one student had approached the Court and four others had intervened, the bench observed that issue of legality and validity of a Government Resolution cannot be decided on the basis of the number of litigants in Court challenging such a Government Resolution. If the Court finds some illegality on the part of the State, Centre or any public authority, Court is empowered to take suo moto action in such circumstances. In our view this is one of the such gross case affecting large number of students by the impugned Resolution.3. CET for students from all boards based only on SSC syllabus, deprives other Board Students of Equal opportunity The bench upheld the CISCE (ICSE) Board's argument that the CET based on SSC syllabus was not only unfair but also discriminatory to say the least. Since CISCE offers a wide range of subjects for their students to choose from, several students have not opted for Mathematics & Science, which form an integral part of the CET test syllabus. In our view, by imposing conditions i.e. (i) that all those students who are the students from other Boards shall appear in CET examination on SSC syllabus and (ii) that the students who have appeared for CET examinations will be given priority in first phase of admission procedure for Class XIth standard on their merit, the State Government has deprived the students from other statutory Boards to compete with the students of SSC Board.4. None of the Boards Have Willingly Agreed to Participate in CET Other boards said they wouldn't be able to provide questions at such a short notice and some suggested doing away with CET. A perusal of these three letters would indicate that none of these Boards (CISCE, CBSE, Cambridge Assessment International Education) who are parties to this petition have agreed to participate in the CET examination willingly or unwillingly and have given suggestions to do away with the CET examination for various reasons already set out therein. In view of the protest made by those Boards also, in our view, no purpose and object would be achieved if CET examination is allowed to be held.5. Students would carry the risk of their life by exposing themselves if they appear for such CET examination – 3rd Covid Wave The bench observed that the primary reason why the State cancelled the SSC examination was the Covid -19 pandemic. And even though the State government claimed the CET was a 'choice', over 10 lakh students had enrolled for it. Moreover, experts in the field have predicted Covid–19's third wave in July/August 2021, which is more likely to affect children between 10 to 18 years, the bench said, adding that as per the State Medical Education Department, out of 5,72,371 children 4,00,660 were from the age group of 11 to 20 years. The State Government does not dispute that all the students who are asked to appear for CET examination are below the age of 18 and under the existing SOP issued by the State of Maharashtra, are not vaccinated till date. These students would carry the risk of their life by exposing themselves if they appear for such CET...

5 Reasons Why Bombay High Court Cancelled Common Entrance Test for Junior College Admissions

Sharmeen Hakim

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