New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has directed that the "best 5" rule would apply to both SSC and ICSE students of Maharashtra for admission to Class XI during the present academic year and stayed a portion of the Bombay High Court order which had quashed the rule.
The apex court's interim order would now pave the way for Maharashtra government and the state's Secondary and Higher Education Board to go ahead with the admission process for the 5,000-odd junior colleges in the state.
An estimated 16 lakh SSC and 10,000 ICSE students are vying for admission in various junior colleges of the state.
The state Board had this year come out with a new rule according to which marks obtained in five subjects by SSC (Secondary School Certificate) students would be considered - out of the six subjects - for the purpose of issuing Class X mark list. The subject in which a student has fared worst would be left out.
A Bench of Justice V S Sirpurkar and Cyriac Joseph said ICSE students should be allowed to choose the "best 5" subjects from among the Group I and II subjects only.
It, however, said if ICSE students do not want to opt for the "best 5" rule they can stick to the earlier rule of calculating the aggregate of all the seven subjects for the purpose of admission.
Earlier, the Bombay High Court had quashed the best of 5 rule, saying it discriminated against students from other boards such as Indian Certificate of Secondary Education and Central Board of Secondary Education and also directed that online admission process for Class XI could start immediately.
By the order, the High Court had stayed the admission process which had began on June 25.
The apex court bench, however, issued a notice to a batch of ICSE students and their parents teachers forum on the special leave petition filed by the state and the Board challenging the Bombay High Court's judgement quashing the "best 5" rule.
Maharashtra government submitted before the apex court that the verdict needed to be set aside as it affected the interest of over 16 lakh students who passed out under the SSC (Secondary School Certificate)syllabus.
The decision was taken because the SSC Board felt ICSE and CBSE marking systems were more liberal and gave advantage to their students in the Class X exam.
But several ICSE students and parents challenged the system, saying the new SSC system is discriminatory and even ICSE board should be allowed to adopt the same system.
The apex court granted the students/parents to file their response within eight weeks and the state/Board to file its rejoinder three weeks thereafter and posted the matter for further hearing to October.