MA Baby: Mulling SC move

Kochi, Jan. 4: Kerala High Court has struck down four key provisions of a new law for professional colleges in the state that empowered the Left-led government to regulate admissions, fix fees and determine minority status of educational institutions.

Chief Justice V.K. Bali and Justice P.R. Raman held as “unconstitutional” Sections 3, 7, 8 and 10 of the act.

Kerala has 72 self-financing engineering colleges and 10 private medical colleges.

The highlight of the new law was that admission to 85 per cent of seats in all professional colleges would be on the basis of the state’s common entrance test and counselling. Capitation fees were banned.

The judges ruled that the new law, passed in haste without proper consultation, violated Article 14 of the Constitution that grants citizens equality before law and Article 19 (1) (g), which gives the right to practise any profession and carry on any occupation or trade.

Education minister M.A. Baby, in Calcutta to attend the CPM central committee meet, said the government would appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court and explore options, including an all-party meeting, to resolve the issue.

Opposition leader Oommen Chandy said going in appeal would further aggravate the crisis in the state’s higher education sector.

Striking down Section 3, which related to admissions, the judges observed it would be unjust to impose unnecessary control on self-financing colleges that shared the government’s responsibility in the higher education sector.

On Section 7, the judges upheld the argument that it would be impractical to run the colleges by conforming to low fees fixed by the government in 85 per cent seats.

Section 8 related to conditions for minority status and Section 10 dealt with quotas.

The judges observed that the new legislation violated Article 30 (1) of the Constitution, which says: “All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.”

The government could resort to an ordinance or other measures to overcome problems arising out of the annulment with regard to reservations for scheduled castes and backward classes, the judges said.