90:10 imbroglio: HC may deliver judgment today

Shibu Thomas | TNN

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked the lawyers arguing the 90:10 case to wrap up their arguments by Friday. “The issue concerns admissions to colleges,’’ a division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice S C Dharmadhikari reminded the lawyers on the fourth day of hearings in the case on Thursday. The Chief Justice indicated that the bench would begin dictating the judgment immediately after hearing the lawyers.

Though results were declared a week ago, admissions have not been finalised pending the verdict of the high court. As per the original schedule the first list of students were due to be out by June 30.

On Day 4 four of the hearing in the HC, senior advocate K K Singhvi, counsel for the Maharashtra government said that the 90:10 formula worked out for the admissions to first year junior college was “reasonable’’. Denying that there was any arbit r a r i n e s s, Singhvi said that the state had held wide ranging consultations with various groups since last year when the HC had struck down the percentile system.

An affidavit by dr Sridhar Salunkhe, divisional chairman of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, said that the scheme attempted to strike a balance between different boards. “Ultimately, it is the students of other boards (CBSE/ICSE) who are desirous of seeking admissions in the FYJC course affiliated to and recognised by the State board,’’ said the affidavit. “The interests of students who have continued to study in the state board affiliated and recognised institutions ought not to be ignored.

The government resolution (implementing 90:10) merely recognises the ground realities with regard to state board students and strikes a reasonable balance that adequately protects the interests of all students and does not impinge of any person’s rights.’’ The affidavit further said that the quota had been fixed in proportion to the number of students from different boards. Dr Salunkhe also added that Boards like CBSE and ICSE ought to have c o m m e n c e d their own Standard XI and Standard XII to address the problems faced by their students.

CBSE and ICSE students constituted barely 3.38 % of total candidates who took admission the 2.48 lakh FYJC seats in the city. The fight really is for elite colleges in the city where for the year 2008-2009, between 9% to 41% constituted CBSE/ICSE students.

e-admission update
Over 2.4 lakh students have filled out their application forms for FYJC via the online admission process. And over 1.88 lakh forms have already been uploaded onto the website.