Abolition of Common Entrance Test - CET Justified, Government Tells Court

Abolition of Common Entrance Test - CET Justified, Government Tells Court

Professional Educational Institution Act not at odds with Central regulations

Chennai: Rejecting the argument that the Common Entrance Test was the only tool for uniform evaluation of students, the Tamil Nadu Government told the Madras High Court on Tuesday that normalization of marks was a credible alternative

Justifying the abolition of the test for professional course admissions and the introduction of normalization scheme, Advocate-General R. Viduthalai argued that if emphasis was laid on the uniform evaluation, that Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act 2006 was a valid enactment.

Maintaining that the Act was neither repugnant to nor inconsistent with the Central regulations, he said that the overlapping area was still available for the State Government to make necessary legislation. The presence of a Central legislation would not ipso facto disentitle that State Government from enacting the Act of its own. When the Bench of Justice Prafulla Kumar Misra and Justice J.A.K. Sampath Kumar posed a pointed query as to how long would authorities need to organize the CET, Mr.Viduthalai said the process normally took 45 days.

Additional Advocate – General N.Kannadasan submitted that unlike two earlier attempts to abolish the CET, the Government had appointed and committee of experts and accepted its recommendation to abolish the test and introduce the normalization scheme. The committee issued advertisements, invited suggestions and held public hearings.

Mr.Kannadasan said authorities had been asked to apply the normalization method to the last two batches of students to demonstrate the fact that it was as effective as the CET. The normalization scheme could be put to use on a trial basis; if need be, it could be reviewed a year latter. Senior counsel R.Gandhi, representing students opposed to the CET, said that State had legislative competence and that the impugned Act was not in violation of any Central provision.

Additional Solicitor-General V.T. Gopalan, taking exception to a counter-affidavit filled by the Council of Architecture against the abolition of the CET, said it had been filled without authorization. The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development would initiative action against the advocate concerned, he said. A statutory Authority functioning under the Ministry could not take a stand different from that of the Centre.

Earlier, K.M. Vijayan, senior counsel for petitioner students, argued that the normalization scheme had pitfalls in that its benefits would not reach all students.

As for the constitution of a committee of experts, Mr.Vijayan said it was not a statutory creation. He, however, said it was a situation wherein a State law had obtained Presidential assent through it was not consistent with the Central legislation. Arguments will continue on Wednesday.

Abolition of Common Entrance Test - CET Justified, Government Tells Court

Related Web Pages

Abolition Common Entrance Test Justified |  Professional Educational Institution |  Common Entrance Test |  CET |  Central Legislation | 

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