Cuttack, May 9: The dispute over admission to Class XI in DAV School (Unit-VIII, Bhubaneswar) is back again in the Orissa High Court.

The school is caught in a legal battle over its admission procedure that it claims has been formulated in keeping with the CBSE guidelines.

The authorities have set cut-off marks for admission of its own students to Class XI. However, those failing to meet the eligibility norms would have to take an entrance test, along with outsiders.

The dispute was first raised before the court by the parents’ association of the school and a student through separate petitions.

On April 18, the high court had quashed the eligibility criteria notices issued by DAV School and directed them to admit their own students in Class XI in science, commerce and humanities.

But the school authorities have filed a writ appeal challenging the order.

High court sources said the writ appeal would be taken up for hearing by the chief justice. The eligibility criteria was prepared according to the academic level required for different groups of subjects on the basis of performance in school assessment.

The school has 168 seats in science stream, while 273 students had appeared in the Class X CBSE examination. Adopting the cut-off mark criteria (75 per cent aggregate mark and 60 per cent in mathematics in school assessment examination), the school authorities had given provisional admission to 125 students, awaiting publication of Class X examination. For the rest 43 seats, applications have been invited for an entrance test. Similar process was being adopted for the 56 seats each in commerce and humanities stream in Class XI.

Acting on petitions filed before it, the single bench of justice Sanju Panda ruled: “Fixation of cut-off mark as the eligibility criteria for being admitted in Class XI so far as the students of DAV Public School, Unit-VIII, are concerned is illegal, arbitrary and unreasonable.”

The single judge bench had endorsed the contention of the petitioners that in a higher secondary school, the examination of Class X could not be regarded as a terminal exam for those who want to continue their study in Classes XI and XII of the school.

The question of an entrance test or considering the result in a particular class or school for the purpose of admission would arise only if a student changed institution, the petitioners said.