Observing that no student should be eliminated from appearing in the Common Entrance Test (CET) for admissions to junior colleges, the Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra government to come up with a solution for inclusion of students from all the boards – ICSE, CBSE and IGCSE – while setting question paper for the CET.
CET is being held this year under exceptional circumstances as this year none of the boards could conduct the Class X exams
Asking the government to come up with a solution, a division bench of justices RD Dhanuka and Riyaz Chagla said on Monday: “Otherwise we will come up with a solution… we will not let you eliminate students from other boards…”
The high court has asked the government to consider setting a common question paper for the CET which would include questions from syllabus from all the other boards as well. The judges even said that the students can be given the option to answer questions of choice from subjects which they opted for in Class 10 examination.
The high court is hearing a petition filed by ICSE student Ananya Patki seeking quashing of Government Resolution dated May 28 that declared “admissions to XI/ junior colleges will be based on CET which in turn will be based solely on the SSC board syllabus”.
During the hearing, Justice Chagla asked government pleader Poornima Kantharia whether it was possible for the education board to sit with other boards and come up with a common syllabus. “Have the option of subjects which the students can choose from which they opted for (in Class 9 and 10),” said justice Chagla.
Kantharia said that it was not possible to include the syllabus of all the boards as the SSC students would not be in position to answer questions from syllabus of other boards. “SSC students cannot prepare for the syllabus of ICSE and CBSE,” argued Kantharia.
Kantharia pointed out that the results of ICSE were declared last week where they had 99.98% results and most of the kids were in the 90% bracket. “Many kids from the ICSE board have already joined their respective colleges,” added Kantharia.
She informed the high court that the government had extended the date for registration of CET in view of a glitch in the system. “Even due to the floods in Maharashtra many students were unable to register and there was a glitch on the registration site,” argued Kantharia.
Kantharia said that they would get the data regarding the number of students from other boards registering for the CET next week.
Advocate Yogesh Patki, Ananya’s father, argued that if the government does not come up with a solution and closes registration then it would not be fair to students of other boards. To this Kantharia said that they could anyways register for the CET.
The high court has observed that students from other boards may register for the CET without prejudice to their rights and contentions.
High court has allowed intervention of students from IGCSE board.
The high court will hear the matter on August 4.
