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Journalism of Courage
The Tamil Nadu State Legislature had no competence to enact the Tamil Nadu Act II of 2006, which abolished Common Entrance Test (CET) for State Board students, in view of the occupied fields by the MCI and AICTE regulations, the Madras High Court has held.
The Act was repugnant to Article 15(5) of the Constitution and did not prevail over the regulations of the MCI and the AICTE, the First Bench observed while allowing a batch of writ petitions challenging the Act. The Act was also violating the concept of equality guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution, the Bench added.
The Bench observed that the argument that Inamdar’s case had diluted the mandatory provision of conduct of CET was misconceived and required to be rejected. The Supreme Court had held that all private colleges required a CET and it didn’t strike down the existing Central government legislations. It only carved out private colleges and enabled them to conduct CET on their own, the Bench pointed out.
The petitioners’ contention was that the State Legislature did not have the competence to legislate in matters relating to admission, which was occupied under Entry 66 List I of the Central Acts like the MCI and AICTE.
