MADHA ENGINEERING COLLEGE Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A.P.Shah

(2.) THESE appeals are directed against the common judgment and order passed by the learned single Judge in a batch of writ petitions. The challenge in these petitions is to the constitutional validity of some of the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act, 2006 (Act No.3 of 2007) (for short "the Act"), and the consequential Government Order Nos. 115 and 87 dated 25.05.2007 and 16.03.2007 respectively issued in pursuance of the Act. The writ petitioners are the un-aided minority and non-minority professional colleges and the Consortium of Self Financing Professional, Arts & Science Colleges. The main ground of attack in the writ petitions is that the provisions of the Act are violative of the petitioners" fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 19(1)(g) and 30 of the Constitution of India.

(3.) PURSUANT to the judgment of the Supreme Court in Islamic Academy case, the State of Tamil Nadu issued orders fixing 50% of the seats in non-minority institutions to be filled up by the State through the Common Entrance Test conducted by the State and permitting the private self-financing non-minority institutions to fill up the remaining 50% seats. In minority institutions, 30% of the seats were to be filled up by the Government leaving the minority institutions to fill up the remaining 70% seats. The minority as well as non-minority institutions were permitted to conduct a Common Entrance Test through the petitioner consortium and they were also permitted to admit students pertaining to management quota based on the merit resulting from the entrance examination and marks obtained in the qualifying examinations.