Bangalore: The dark clouds that hung over the future of students seeking admissions to professional courses ever since the Supreme Court judgment of October 2002 have lifted rather dramatically, after the latest verdict of the same court. The merchants of education who were cock-a-hoop about turning their institutions into money spinners, have been brought down to earth with a thud as the five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice V N Khare has reminded them once again that "imparting of education is essentially charitable in nature and profiteering of any sort cannot be allowed."

The court has cleared the confusion on several fronts. It has banned the collection of arbitrarily fixed and clandestinely secured donations. It has upheld the state's prerogative to control the admission process through Common Entrance Test (CET). It has devised a mechanism to ensure that the management quota is also filled strictly according to merit.

It has allowed minority institutions certain leeway to meet the aspirations of the communities they claim to serve, but made it abundantly clear that "national interest would prevail even over minority rights". And while upholding the 50-50 share for the current year, it has left it open for review based on local needs.

Over the last nine months, the flip-flop actions taken by the Karnataka government, bending over backwards to please the managements, put the students and their parents through a harrowing time. It was amazing to see the government rushing to cancel the admissions already made by the CET and the ministers issuing statements denying seats to meritorious students on the false presumption that it could not go beyond 50 per cent when the court had clearly held, "if admissions have already been completed based on any other percentage, such admissions shall not be disturbed." Where was the need for such a great hurry Mr Krishna, if you had your heart in the right place?

Fortunately, the apex court's ruling has left little room for political manoeuvre. It is a well-known fact that some "famous" institutions have already collected huge donations, ranging from Rs five lakh to Rs 25 lakh as advance in anticipation of a bonanza in the form of management quota. Recognising that there will be a conspiracy of silence between the donation-giver and the donation-taker, the court has gone beyond merely banning the capitation fee or taking of donations over and above the fee structure.

It has made it mandatory to make all admissions through a state CET or a common admission mechanism for different courses and strictly follow the merit, even for filling the management seats. The court has said in a ringing tone, "if it is found that any student has been admitted de hors merit, penalty can be imposed on that college and in appropriate cases, recognition/affiliation may also be withdrawn." The onus is clearly on the state government to act as a vigilante against profiteering, as it has now been conferred with the power of disaffiliation of any delinquent institution.

Another significant step taken by the Supreme Court is with regard to the fee structure. The obvious flaw in the earlier judgment of imposing a "uniform fee structure", whereby poorly equipped colleges could collect the same fee as some of the better institutions, has been done away with. Now each institution has to justify before a committee consisting of a chartered accountant among others, the fee it wants to collect based on the infrastructure and facilities available, investments made, salaries paid to the staff and future plans for expansion. The money so collected cannot be used for any purpose other than the betterment of the institution.

The profiteers masquerading in the name of minority institutions will now have to show the genuine concern for the communities or language groups they represent. The management quota can be utilised to admit the student of a particular community, overriding the merit of another student, but within the same community, inter-se merit cannot be ignored.

The Supreme Court judgment has done a great service to the nation. It is now up to the Executive to implement it in letter and spirit.

(Courtesy: Vijay Times)