Southern States - Karnataka   

Karnataka panel to study SC verdict

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Jan. 9.

Representatives of private professional college managements today agreed to be part of a committee to be set up by the Government to go into the modalities of implementing the October 31 judgment of the Supreme Court on the educational rights of religious and linguistic minorities. The decision was taken at a meeting which was attended by the Chief Minister, S. M. Krishna, the Law Minister, D. B. Chandre Gowda, the Higher Education Minister, G. Parameshwara, and others. A 11-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, presided over by the then Chief Justice of India, B. N. Kirpal, had handed down the judgment of far-reaching consequences for the minorities and the non-minorities in T.M.A.Pai Foundation and others Vs. the State of Karnataka and others case. Besides the main petitioner, there were 161 others, 27 of them from Karnataka. A significant outcome of the meeting was that contrary to fears of the Government, a large number of unaided professional college managements favoured the retention of the Common Entrance Test for engineering, medical and dental courses. The State has won acclaim for the way it is conducting the CET. Representatives of colleges of education also attended today's meeting. It is stated that those who favoured the continuance of the CET were managements of new institutions.

Dr. Parameshwar told presspersons that the committee would have representatives of engineering, medical, dental, and education colleges besides the Ministers holding relevant portfolios. The panel would go into issues such as protecting students with merit and those belonging to the SC, ST, and backward classes, holding of admission tests, fees to be charged for courses and implementation of the judgment. The Government was eager to get the report of the committee early and pass the order within the next fortnight. The dates for the next CET had been announced (May 15 and 16). The Government convened the meeting as it wanted to protect the interests of merit students and those belonging to the SC, ST and backward classes. It was the responsibility of the Government and the managements to implement the judgment. At the meeting, the Chief Minister stressed the need for implementing the judgment along with ensuring social justice and the rights of the management. The judgment is of particular import to Karnataka which has a large number of unaided professional colleges. Of the 123 engineering colleges, 107 are unaided and 15 of them are run by religious and linguistic minorities. Of the 32 medical colleges, 28 are unaided (10 minority) and of the 36 dental colleges, 35 are unaided (five religious and four linguistic minorities).

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