Oppn. misinterpreting court order: CM

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 16. The Chief Minister, Mr. E. K. Nayanar, has accused the Opposition and the BJP of twisting the observations in the High Court order on the Plus Two issue for their ulterior political motives.In a statement here today, he said these parties, aided by a section of the media, were continuing their misinformation campaign by misinterpreting the court order.

Quoting extensively from the order, Mr. Nayanar said that what the court had done was to criticise the Government for not adhering to the guidelines set by the executive itself for selecting schools for the Plus Two courses while preparing this year's list. Due to this very reason, the court ordered the cancellation of this year's list of 360 schools selected from among 1,429 schools.

The Court order said: ``...it must be borne in mind that under the five government orders/notifications, the district-wise committees have been constituted and we have referred earlier to the elaborate procedure the district-wise committee has to follow. This procedure has been further reiterated and a further expert committee was contemplated.

``The exercise of the power of the Government in the past three academic years 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000 prima facie, appears to be in accordance with the said procedure laid down in these five orders/notifications. The orders granting permission in the past refer to the procedure being followed. Surprisingly, in the two impugned orders, there is not even a whisper of any such procedure being followed.

``The Government is exercising a purely executive power. We are told that there is no legislation or rules yet framed in the matter of grant of Plus Two courses. We proceed on the footing that the grant of Plus Two course is purely in the realm of executive powers. The question is whether, while exercising that power, the Government has adhered to the established procedure. The object of the procedure is to ensure minimum standard in the academic institutions. If a procedure laid down by the executive has not been followed by the executive itself, there is no hesitation in our mind that it would suffer from the vice of arbitrariness and mala fides. It would, therefore, violate the mandate of Article 14 of the Constitution''.

Mr. Nayanar said that what the court had really done was to point out the `inappropriateness' of the executive flouting the guidelines of its own creation.

The court, in its order, had further clarified that ``We have not stated anything about political mala fides. We have not considered the mala fides alleged by the petitioners. We have only dealt with procedure lapse in sanctioning the Plus Two course. We are not dealing with the contentions of extraneous considerations raised by the petitioners''.

Mr. Nayanar said the Government was fully submitting itself to the court direction to set right the lapses and ensure that a fresh list was published But the designs of the Opposition and the BJP were something else.

Sensing that the Plus Two issue is not gaining currency among the public at large, Mr. A. K. Antony and his associates have demanded that pre-degree should not be delinked from the colleges. In the 57th paragraph of the order on Plus Two case, the court stated as follows:

``In the present case, we are concerned with improving the standards of education. This has to be in tune with the National Education Policy. Abolition of Pre-degree course was with a view to improving the standard of education. Preamble of the said Abolition Act says so. Plus Two course is meant to be a substitute to the erstwhile Pre Degree course.... We have no doubt in our mind that when the first respondent State framed the guidelines, laid down the procedure in the five Government orders of 1997 and 1998, it had this concern for the good of the student community, of society and the nation at large''.

He said the Advocate General had been asked to study the 78-page order of the High Court's Division Bench in detail and submit his recommendations on what further legal measures should be taken by the Government on the case.

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