The Hindu : SC reserves verdict in interpretation of minority case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 31, 2003

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SC reserves verdict in interpretation of minority case

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI July 30. A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court today reserved verdict on a batch of petitions relating to the right of unaided minority educational institutions (UMEIs) to admit students in medicine and engineering.

The Bench comprised the Chief Justice, V.N. Khare, S.N. Variava, K.G. Balakrishnan, Arijit Pasayat and S.B. Sinha.

The Bench is to clarify the law laid down by the 11-judge bench in the T.M.A. Pai case last year and examine issues pertaining to capitation fee as there were allegations that medical seats were being sold for a fee.

Senior counsel for Tamil Nadu, C.S. Vaidyanathan, argued that after the 11-judge judgment, the State was empowered to fix a percentage of seats to be filled by UMEIs on their own and through selection of students under the common entrance test.

Considering the local needs, the State had fixed it in the ratio of 60:40 and within the 60 per cent the rule of reservation must be followed. He said it was not correct to say that UMEIs were empowered to fill the entire 100 per cent seats of their own as such a procedure had not been contemplated in the judgment.

Appearing for Andhra Pradesh, senior counsel, V.R. Reddy, submitted that the CET had proved to be an excellent method of admitting students in the State and till now there had been no complaints.

He said the fee structure fixed by the State was found to be viable and acceptable to the managements and this was reflected in the growth of a number of engineering and medical colleges in the last few years. The concept of reservation would be in jeopardy if there was no CET, which alone would ensure merit.

Appearing for the student body, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarti Parishad, senior counsel, M.N. Krishnamani, said if the fee structure was not regulated or controlled by the State it would lead to private institutions exploiting the students.

He argued that for many private institutions, education had become a business and "instead of imparting education they sell it''.

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