TN Govt Appeals HC - Notice Issued To HRD Ministry

The Madras High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the HRD Ministry (Human Resource Department) after Government of Tamil Nadu filed a petition against a single judge order, which had earlier upheld the AICTE's revised norms for admitting candidates into the undergraduate programmes.

Arguing that it was "Against Law and also against the Constitution of India", additional Chief Secretary, Higher Education Department, Tamil Nadu Government filed a petition against the orders passed by Justice K Chandru on July 20, 2012.

On appealing on the behalf of the petitioner the Joint Secretary to Higher Education Department, State Government submitted that AICTE had till 2010-11, prescribed a mere pass in the 10+2 examination as eligibility for admission into engineering and technology programmes and for 2011-12 and revised its norms and made it 45% and 40% of marks for open and reserved category candidates respectively.

The petitioner opposed that AICTE did not take into consideration the representation of SC/SC(A)/ST communities and the ground realities that large number of seats earmarked for these communities remain vacant even with the mere pass criterion. Also, enhancement of minimum eligibility marks will have adverse effect on SC/SC(A)/ST students in their availing the opportunity to get admission in professional degree courses.

At present, the status of the case would be abound because the Bench of Chief Justice MY Eqbal and Justice A Arumugasamy, ordered issue of notice to the HRD Ministry complementary within two weeks time.