A plea challenging a Bombay High Court order backing the recently introduced common law entrance test in Maharashtra led the Supreme Court to seek a response from the state government on Monday.
A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and RK Agrawal issued notice to the Devendra Fadnavis government and others while seeking its reply within a week.
The apex court was hearing a petition filed by a law student, Kedar Warad, challenging July 5 order of Bombay High Court which said that “state was well within its powers to conduct a common entrance test for admissions to all law colleges, whether private, aided or unaided.”
While dismissing the plea filed by the student, the High Court had said the “manner in which the state government had conducted the exams, left much to be desired”, but this did not mean the entire process leading up to the exam was illegal.
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“The court would have been happier had the state notified the students about the exam pattern, syllabus etc, well inadvance and thus granted them more time to prepare. But merely because the exam was not conducted in a manner suggested by the petitioner, we can’t declare the common entrance test and the entire process around it illegal, invalid, or unconstitutional,” the High Court had said in its order.
{{/usCountry}}“The court would have been happier had the state notified the students about the exam pattern, syllabus etc, well inadvance and thus granted them more time to prepare. But merely because the exam was not conducted in a manner suggested by the petitioner, we can’t declare the common entrance test and the entire process around it illegal, invalid, or unconstitutional,” the High Court had said in its order.
{{/usCountry}}Maharashtra government had said that the common test had been introduced through a notification under the Maharashtra Universities Act and extended to both government and private institutes through an “executive order”.