Bombay High Court cancels Maharashtra govt's CET for junior college admission

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday cancelled the Common Entrance Test CET for Class 11 in Maharashtra scheduled for August 21 saying it would result in gross injustice and affect students right to life in view of the COVID19 threatThe government should immediately start admissions to the First Year Junior College on the basis of students Class 10 scores and complete the process in six weeks it saidThe court also refused to stay its decision to enable the government to file an appeal Minister Varsha Gaikwad said the government would take further decision after studying the orderThe government decided to hold a physical CET as Class 10 board exams had not been held But the parents of some students from CBSE ICSE and IGCSE boards complained that it would be discriminatory as the test would be based on the state boards syllabusThe state government does not have the power under law to issue such a notification and this court can intervene in an extreme case of gross injustice such as this a division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and R I Chagla saidldquoIf this CET examination is allowed to be held in this manner at this stage it will cause gross injustice to all the students including those who have passed Class ten from the SSC board There is no reasonable nexus in introducing such CET examination in such an illegal mannerrdquo the court said in its judgmentFurther the state government could not give convincing reasons as to what purpose the CET would serve more particularly in this pandemic situation the court saidThe governments decision that the students who appear for the CET would be given a priority in Class 11 admissions was arbitrary unreasonable harsh discriminatory capricious and in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution which guarantees right to equality it saidldquoThe right to get admission in the First Year Junior College granted to the students passing 10th examination from other Boards cannot be taken away by imposing a condition which would treat them unequally with the students having passed Xth examination from SSC state Board the court saidEven if a petition challenging the CET had not been filed this would have been a fit case for the court to take suo motu on its own notice the judges saidldquoSince such action of the State Government would affect right to life of large number of students Court cannot be a mute spectator the HC said noting that a physical examination would mean a large number of persons including students who are not yet vaccinated coming together which could ldquopotentially trigger the spread of the deadly infectionldquoLarge number of minor students who are more susceptible to the pandemic would be forced to expose their life to a big risk which would be in gross violation of their right to life It would have a serious cascading effect Life is more important than the choice of the students to get admission in a preferred collegerdquo the bench saidThe court thus quashed and set aside the May 28 notification announcing the CET As per the notification those unwilling to appear for the test would be admitted to Class 11 on the basis of aggregate of Class 10 marksThe high court directed the state government to start the admission process for Class 11 on the basis of Class 10 marks and internal assessment scores of students The admission process should be completed within six weeks it addedAdvocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni the state governments lawyer requested the court to stay the order so that the government could file an appealThe court said it was not inclined to do so as the issue involved the right to life of lakhs of studentsAnanya Patki a student of a Mumbai school affiliated to the ICSE board had challenged the CET Four IGCSE board students had also filed intervention petitionsThe petitions claimed that the CET would be discriminatory as it would be based on the Maharashtra governments Secondary School Certificate SSC syllabusAdvocate General Kumbhakoni had told the court that all the students would get admission to Class 11 but those who want colleges of their choice must take the CETAdvocate Yogesh Patki the petitioners father contended that the decision was taken in a haphazard manner and the exam date was announced at a short notice on July 19This violated Articles 14 right to equality and 21 right to life as lakhs of nonvaccinated students in the 1516 age group would have to appear for the offline test he saidKumbhakoni had pointed out that the CET was not mandatory and in any case all safety norms would be followed while conducting itAround 1075 lakh students had registered for the CET including a large number of CBSE school students he saidSchool Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad said the government will decide the next course of action after studying the HC orderThe decision to hold CET was taken to minimize the educational loss of students Last year students had suffered an educational loss We will study the high courts decision and take action accordinglyrdquo she told reportersReacting to the courts ruling Vilas Parab a teacher said it was disappointingMany schools gave very high internal assessment scores to their students which inflated the overall scorecards and the cancellation of the CET may lead to deserving students failing to get into good colleges he saidAlso Read No clarity on First Year Junior College admissions as verdict on Common Entrance Test awaitedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever