A.M.ABDUL GAFOOR Vs. CALICUT UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ petitions are filed by students who have been admitted to the management seats in self-financing Colleges carrying on B.Ed. course in various subjects, affiliated to the University of Calicut. Essentially the challenge of the petitioners is against the prescription in the Prospectus for Admission to B.Ed. Courses, 2012 (Kerala) under Clause 5.2.1.(iv), which reads as under:

(2.) The petitioners are all graduates in different subjects, who applied for and were admitted to management quota seats, in the various colleges affiliated to the respondent-University. The challenge is against prescription of minimum requirement of 50% marks for Part III, i.e., the Main and Subsidiary subjects, as against the prescription of the National Council for Teacher Education (for brevity "NCTE"), which speaks only of the requirement of 50% in graduate studies. Admittedly the students who were admitted to the merit seats, as per the rank list published by the agency entrusted with the recruitment process, are students who obtained 50% marks in Part III subjects alone. The petitioners' claim is that in making admissions to the management seats, the respondent-Colleges could act according to their whim so long as they comply with the NCTE Regulations.

(3.) In fact, the very same issue came up before this Court in two writ petitions, wherein the petitioners were similarly disabled for reason of not having 50% marks in Part III; but had obtained 50% aggregate marks in the graduate level. The claim made therein was that the prescription now attempted by the University itself, is in fact a lowering of standards and would go against the judicially recognized principle that no University, in fixing standards for admission, could go against the specific norms prescribed by the apex body; in the present case the NCTE. This Court answered the issue so in paragraphs 7 to 10 of the judgment dated 07.11.2013 in W.P.(C).Nos.9653 and 9722 of 2013: