Students prepared with best-5 in mind: state to SC

The Bombay High Court has struck down the policy,the state has challenged the order and the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the appeal on Monday. The formula involves totalling the scores of five subjects instead of six,with the lowest-scoring one left out.

In its special leave petition,the state says,“The Bombay High Court rendered its decision totally overlooking the fact that the student community,which is 16 lakh in number,had studied their subjects to suit the amended marking system introduced by the state government and the board. Now to direct the authorities to take into account the marks scored by the students in all subjects would cause a lot of prejudice to the student community for no fault on their part.”

The SLP says the High Court has overlooked the fact that there have been efforts since 1970 to ensure equivalence among various boards,due to differences in the pattern of study,teaching,syllabi and methods of evaluation. It says the High Court “ought to have noted that the legislative function of the state government can never be malafide or suffer from total non-application of mind”.

A bench headed by Justice Altmas Kabir had last week declined to grant any urgent relief or stay on the High Court order. Special counsel P P Rao and state counsel Nitin Deshpande had sought an interim stay as the admission process has been stalled till July 10.

The High Court judgment had come in response to petitions filed by Sangita Shah and 20 others,challenging the best-5 system that would benefit SSC students alone. The court had held that “the state has miserably failed to substantiate the stand” that SSC students were at a disadvantage if the policy is not implemented and held that the government’s decision was discriminatory and violated Article 14 of the Constitution on equal opportunity for everyone.