Chennai, June 22: Madras High Court today told Tamil Nadu it is “inclined” to strike down the Jayalalithaa government’s order abolishing the common entrance test (CET) for admission to professional courses.

The government, the court hinted, may be asked to come up with a “non-discriminatory fresh formula” for next year.

Chief Justice Markenday Katju and Justice Ibrahim Kalifula made it clear that the government’s June 9 order, which says students should be admitted to professional courses “purely on the basis of their plus two examination marks”, may not be legally sustainable and is liable to be termed “defective”.

The chief justice indicated that some sort of a common entrance test may be the only way to provide a level-playing field for students passing out of various streams of different boards, each with a different system of marking.

At the same time, the government should do something to help the rural students who cannot afford the special coaching that is so necessary to do well in the CET, the judges suggested.

Over 400 students across the state had moved the high court with individual petitions challenging the scrapping of the CET conducted by the Anna University this year.

The government had also dealt a blow to students who passed their plus two exams last year but took an “improvement exam” this year to increase their marks in some subjects. It said only marks obtained in the “first attempt” will count during admission to professional colleges.

Amid marathon arguments in a jampacked courtroom today, the government found itself mostly at the receiving end of the judges’ comments before the case was posted for tomorrow.

Senior counsel K.M. Vijayan, arguing for the petitioners, said the government order “violated the regulations” under the All India Council of Technical Education Act and the Medical Council of India Act, which the Supreme Court had upheld.

These regulations say that when a state allows exams under more than one board ? the state board, ISC and CBSE in this case ? and students come from diverse streams to apply for professional courses, a CET is a must as a leveller of differences.

The counsels for the petitioners, who included the Union finance minister’s wife, Nalini Chidambaram, pointed out that thousands of students had written the CET and Anna University had published the results for 2005-06 before the government changed its policy.

A large number of students had also taken the “improvement exam” in March. “You cannot change the rules of the game after it has been played,” as that makes a mockery of the students’ “legitimate expectations”, Vijayan said.

The chief justice observed, “With the CET and the improvement exam already conducted and the results declared, in the last-minute to suddenly do away with both does not appear fair.”

The government should have either changed its policy six months earlier or made the new policy applicable from next year, he remarked.

Thinking aloud, the chief justice observed that “for this (academic) year we are inclined to strike down the government order and you can continue with the existing system of admissions. Meanwhile, you (the government) have an entire year before you when you can come up with a fresh formula that seeks to have an entrance test on the one hand and redress the problems of the rural students who are handicapped by the CET.”