The Hindu : Karnataka News : 75:25 quota reflects social justice: Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 20, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

75:25 quota reflects social justice: Govt.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 19. The Karnataka Government has filed a fresh application in the Supreme Court justifying the enactment of a law on admissions stating that it reflected the Government's commitment to social justice and a measure of affirmative action permitted under Article 15 (4) of the Constitution.

It pleaded for retention of the 75:25 quota that was followed last year.

A Bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal and Justice C.K. Thakker referred this application to the Chief Justice of India for posting before a larger Bench along with a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the law.

Quota justified

The State Government said that over the years it had evolved a careful policy of allotting the Government quota seats in accordance with its reservation policy by providing reservations for various categories of citizens, including backward classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

In addition, there was reservation for sportsmen and for candidates who had studied in rural areas and Kannada-medium schools. The seat-matrix, based on substantial reservation for government candidates, had been developed over the years. Therefore, it required a minimum of 75 per cent quota in non-minority professional colleges to meet its social needs. The application said the policy of reservations for various sections of society had not been challenged and thus the quota of 75 per cent based on local needs ought to be allowed to be implemented this year.

Giving statistics, it said over 90,000 students wrote the Common Entrance Test conducted by the Government and till July 15, counselling had been completed in respect of 8,587 candidates out of 36,706 candidates and they had been assigned medical and dental ranks; 1,380 had been issued admission orders by the Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell for medical seats based on 75:25 formula. It would be pertinent to state that the number of government quota seats in medical colleges was 1,457 based on 75:25 quota for non-minority colleges and 50:50 quota for minority colleges and inclusive of 336 seats in government colleges. Thus by July 15 more than 90 per cent of the seats available had been filled up by CET Cell.

The application said that in the event of fresh admissions on the basis of 50:50 formula, the entire CET list had to be re-done in the light of lesser preferences available to students selected by the Government. When the fee structure was uniform for government selected students and for those selected by managements, no harm would be caused to the institutions by admitting students who had cleared the CET conducted by the Government.

Govt. formula accepted

Several private unaided non-minority professional colleges had accepted the Government's formula and had voluntarily accepted the CET Cell rank list as the basis for selection of students.

While seeking permission to allow the Government to follow the 75:25 ratio as an interim measure for this academic year, the application prayed for an early hearing of the matter by a larger Bench.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka