SC to hear state govt’s plea on Friday

The Supreme Court on Tuesday fixed July 9 as the date for hearing the Maharashtra government’s appeal challenging the Bombay High Court judgment in the Best-Five case.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday fixed July 9 as the date for hearing the Maharashtra government’s appeal challenging the Bombay High Court judgment in the Best-Five case. The HC had struck down the state’s new policy to calculate the percentage of SSC Class 10 students for junior college admissions.

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Parents of ICSE students had moved the high court as the policy did not apply to them. The government appeal came up for urgent hearing before a bench headed by Justice Altamas Kabir.

The matter was, however, adjourned after the state counsel, senior advocate Mukul Rohatagi, informed the bench that the government had received the full text of the high court judgment on Monday, after they had filed the appeal.

The Bombay High Court had passed its verdict on June 23.

“We would like to file it [the judgment] along with the appeal,” Rohatagi told the court.

He said the HC judgment was creating hurdles for lakhs of students who are awaiting admissions to junior colleges. The state had earlier said the process would not begin before July 10. If the state follows the HC direction, it has to re-declare the results of 16 lakh SSC students, in accordance to the earlier rule that took into account marks of all their six subjects. This, Rohatagi said, would be unfair as students had prepared for the exams as per the amended law that introduced the policy.