Bombay HC stays junior college admissions third year in a row

The Bombay high court on Thursday stayed the admission process for junior colleges for the third consecutive year, this time following a petition filed by parents of students of the ICSE board from Mumbai and Pune.

The issue before the court is the ‘best of five’ policy floated by the state government. With the state board’s Std X (SSC) results to be announced soon, the decision is likely to delay junior college admissions again.

“The respondents (the government) will not commence the
admission process without the permission of this court,” observed a division bench of acting chief justice JN Patel and justice SC Dharmadhikari.

The court was hearing a petition filed on June 7 by 21 parents of ICSE students seeking parity with students from the state board.
This is the third year in a row that parents have challenged the government’s attempts to favour state board students. The government had to rescind its decision in the first two instances.
The court has given the government and the state board one week to reply to the petition.

“Why has the option (of calculating the aggregate percentage of best five subjects, instead of the earlier six) not been made available to them (ICSE students)?” asked the judges after a parent’s lawyer pointed out that only SSC students will benefit from the policy.

The parents’ petition states that the decision is discriminatory and that the government is acting contrary to the idea of ensuring uniformity among students of various boards.

“The decision will give unfair and undue advantage  to SSC students,” states the petition.

Representing the Maharashtra board, advocate Deepa Chavan argued that the government resolution (GR), dated February 25, was issued after due deliberation and public hearings.

She contended that there were rampant inequalities in the admission process, which were removed through the new policy.
Chavan also apprehended that 16 lakh SSC students will be adversely affected by the court’s decision to stay admissions. The judges, however, refused to buy into  the argument.