AJITH GEORGE Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all these Writ Petitions, a common question of law has been raised and therefore these Writ Petitions are being disposed of by a common judgment.

(2.) The petitioners in these Writ Petitions are students who aspire for admission to Engineering Degree courses in management quota in various self-financing colleges in Kerala. They challenge a condition in the prospectus for admission to professional degree courses in Kerala during the year 2006-2007. The impugned clause is 9.7.5 of the prospectus. The said clause lays down that to qualify in the entrance examination and thereby become eligible to figure in the rank list, a candidate has to secure a minimum of 10 marks each in paper 1 and paper 2. They challenge this clause on various grounds like legislative competence for the State Government to make a law regarding fixation of higher standards for technical education, power to disqualify any candidate on the basis of marks in the entrance test, discrimination as between the petitioners on one hand and students getting admission through NRI quota and on the basis of test conducted by the managements' consortium on the other and non-application of mind, while incorporating the said clause.

(3.) According to the petitioners, the minimum educational qualifications for admission to technical courses have been prescribed by the All India Council for Technical Education, (AICTE) ie., a pass in the 10+2 examination with physics and mathematics as compulsory subjects along with any one of the subjects of chemistry/bio-chemistry/computer science/biology, which eligibility criteria has already been mentioned in Clause 6.2.2 of the prospectus. When the AICTE has prescribed the minimum educational qualifications, the State Government does not have the legislative competence to fix a higher standard for admission to technical courses in Kerala. They would submit that by virtue of Entry 66 of List I of Schedule 7 of the Constitution of India, the power to fix standards for technical education is specifically with the Union Government and the Union Government has exercised such legislative powers by prescribing the standards as per the All India Council for Technical Education Act. Since the power of the State to legislate on education under Entry 25 of List III of Schedule 7 of the Constitution is subject to Entry 66 in List I, the legislative competence of the Government of Kerala to prescribe such a condition as per Clause 9.7.5 of the prospectus is impliedly excluded. If the prescription contained in Clause 9.7.5 is an eligibility criteria, that should have been common to all the candidates who aspire for admission and since in respect of SC/ST candidates, children and wards of NRI's and candidates who secure admission through common entrance tests conducted by the managements' consortium do not have to comply with the said condition, the prescription is discriminatory and violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioners. The role of Entrance Commissioner is only to rank the entire candidates who appeared for the common entrance test in the order of their marks and he cannot exclude any candidate from the list on the ground that any candidate has failed to score certain prescribed minimum marks. They also point out an anomaly in so far as the candidate who secured very high mark in one of the papers and fails to score the minimum of 10 marks in another paper he would be excluded from the rank list whereas a candidate who secures the bare minimum of 10 marks in both papers would be included and be eligible for admission. Further, it is contended that altogether about 33,000 students have been disqualified on the basis of this condition, as a result of which, thousands of seats would lie vacant in various colleges imparting technical education which would show lack of application of mind while including that condition in the prospectus. On these grounds, the petitioners seek the following reliefs.