The State cannot insist on private educational institutions which receive no aid from the State to implement State’s policy on reservation for granting admission on any criterion except merit.

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The State cannot insist on private educational institutions which receive no aid from the State to implement State’s policy on reservation for granting admission on any criterion except merit.

Vaishnavi Nirmal  | Manikchand Pahade Law College, Aurangabad | 24th February 2020

P.A. Inamdar & Others v/s State of Maharashtra & Others., Case no.: Appeal (civil) 5041 of 2005

Fact of case:

In the present case, for the admissions of BDS and MDS for academic year 2013- 14 the petitioners college took permission for conducting their own CET for both UG and PG. the permission was granted by the authorized committee but later on the state asked the petitioners were forced with authoritative pressure to conduct of CET-2013 for Minority Quota admissions for Post Graduate MDS course and first year BDS course for the Academic Year 2013-14.

It is seen that M.A. Rangoonwala Dental College, Pune had requested Samiti to allow the separate CET i.e. MARDC-PGAICET-2013 and MARDC-CET-2013 for admission to MDS and BDS courses respectively, for the Academic Year 2013-14 for Minority Quota admissions. Samiti in its meeting held on 21st December has denied the request made by the said College/Institute on the basis of judgment of Hon’ble SC of India in the case of Islamic Academy vs State of Karnataka (2003).

Meanwhile Samiti in its meeting held on 20th December 2013 approved the admissions of M.A. Rangoonwala Dental College, Pune of First Year BDS and Post Graduate MDS Course for the Academic Year 2013-14 on the basis of report submitted by the Expert Committee. Expert Committee in the said report did not mention as to the source of student as to from which CET they recruited their students for Academic Year 2013-14.

In view of the above Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik vide its letter dated 28th February 2014 pointing out that Samiti in its meeting held on 20th December 2013 approve the admissions of the aforesaid College for the Academic Year 2013-14. In continuation of these University asking guidelines as to whether the admitted students of M.A. Rangoonwala Dental College, Pune in the Post Graduate and Undergraduate courses for Academic Year 201314 are approved or not.

Expert Committee has therefore submitted the revised report dated in respect of admission process of M.A. Rangoonwala Dental College, Pune. It  stated that the said College/Institute operated the merit list of MARDC-PAGICET-2013 for admissions to MDS course for the Academic Year 2013-14 and merit list of MARDC-CET-2013 for admissions to first year BDS course for the Academic Year 2013-14 conducted by own at Institute level for the admissions to Minority Quota.

According to the petitioners, it was on account of the failure of the Registrar of the MUHS to inform the members of the Committee the details of the decisions of the Apex Court in the case of Christian Medical College case, resulted in passing of the impugned order.

The petitioners, therefore, approached this Court by filing the present petition.

Issues:

The Supreme Court in its judgement on August 12, 2005 ruled on the following issues in relation to minority and non-minority unaided higher education institutions.

  • Reservation policy,
  • Admission policy,
  • Fee structure,
  • Regulation and control by the state and
  • The role of committees dealing with admission and fees,

Judgement:

The Supreme Court delivered an unanimous judgement by 7 judges bench consisting CJI R.C. Lahoti  Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, D.M. Dharmadhikari, Arun Kumar, G.P. Mathur, Tarun Chatterjee & P.K. Balasubramanyan in the case declaring that the State can’t impose its reservation policy on minority and non-minority unaided private colleges, including professional colleges.

This judgement was an attempt to bring clarity to two previous judgements by the Supreme Court.

One of them is the judgement delivered on October 31, 2002 by 11 judges in the case of T.M.A. Pai Foundation & Ors. vs. State of Karnataka & Ors. (Pai Foundation case) with multiple opinions.

The other is the judgement delivered on August 14, 2003 by a constitution bench that interpreted the Pai Foundation judgement in the case of Islamic Academy of Edn. & Anr. vs. State of Karnataka & Ors (Islamic Academy of Education case), again with multiple opinions.

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Vaishnavi Nirmal

Pursuing Law.

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Vaishnavi Nirmal

Pursuing Law.

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