Law directing Unaided Colleges surrender seats up held Tamil Nadu Admission Professional Educational Institutions Act 2006

Law directing unaided colleges to surrender seats upheld

Law directing Unaided Colleges to surrender seats up held

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Monday upheld the constitutional validity of a State legislation and a consequent Government Order directing the unaided professional colleges to surrender a certain percentage of seats to the State quota and also to follow centralised counselling for admission for management quota seats.

Justice V. Dhanapalan, dismissing a batch of writ petitions filed by various associations of self-financing professional colleges, said the Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act 2006 had been given effect to “taking note of the local needs and, specifically, larger interest and welfare of the student community and to promote merit, achieve excellence and curb malpractices.

The petitions challenged three specific clauses of the Act relating to the surrender of 65 per cent of the total seats to Government by non-minority institutions and surrender of 50 per cent of seats by minority institutions; admission of students for management quota seats through the centralised counselling or Single Window System (SWS); and admissions on the basis of marks obtained in the qualifying examinations alone.

Senior counsel for the associations submitted that the conditions were illegal and that they amounted to nationalisation of seats. They said the seat-sharing agreement between the institutions and the Government was relevant only for the academic year 2006-07.

Advocate-General R. Viduthalai, assisted by Special Government Pleader for Education M. Sekar, said the petitioners did not protest when the Bill was introduced in the Assembly and when it was given assent by the President. Seat-sharing could not be reviewed every year unless there was a material change warranting modification of the terms of agreement, he said.

Mr. Justice Dhanapalan said: “From a reading of the impugned Sections and considering the whole context of the Act, I am satisfied that the legislative intent has been in conformity with the constitutional mandate and the object sought to be achieved by the legislation.” The Supreme Court’s view to bring out legislation in the matter had been now brought out for the "good governance of the educational field in total and also to achieve national wealth in the field of education."

No illegality

Reiterating that he did not see any illegality or unconstitutionality in the Sections 2(c)(iii), 4(1) and 5(4) of the Act, Mr. Justice Dhanapalan said legislation must be allowed to stand as the true expression of the national will, “unless it becomes clear beyond reasonable doubt that the legislation in question transgresses the limits laid down by the organic law of the Constitution.” He said the Government’s direction to admit students on the basis of marks in the qualifying examinations did not infringe on the rights of the minorities or non-minorities.

Law directing unaided colleges to surrender seats upheld

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