HC stays counselling for professional courses in Pondy

Updated on: Wednesday, August 04, 2010

The Madras high court has stayed counselling and admission for professional courses in the Union territory of Puducherry.

The first bench comprising Chief Justice M Yusuf Eqbal and Justice TS Sivagnanam passed the interim order while considering a batch of writ petitions questioning the legality of the Puducherry governmentâ€™s region-wise quota scheme. As per the scheme, each of the four regions of the Union territory Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam was apportioned a certain percentage of the available professional course seats for the coming academic year.

Reserving judgment in the matter, the judges ordered a â€œstay with regard to the counselling and admission till the pronouncement of the judgement.â€

Taking into account the population factor, the authorities had earmarked 18% of the available professional course seats to Karaikal region, while four per cent was given to Mahe and three to Yanam.

The present batch of writ petitions, filed by the Federation of Puducherry Parents and Students Affected by Region-wise Reservation Scheme and others, is with regard to the August 10, 2006 order of the territorial administration.

KM Vijayan, senior counsel for the federation, submitted that it was not a social reservation as it was on the basis of population and not on the backwardness of the region. Pointing out that cent per cent reservation of all the available seats was impermissible, Vijayan argued that because of the regional reservation not many seats were available to the three regions, other than Puducherry.

Government pleader Sreenivasan submitted that it was not an unreasonable classification and that the policy had been upheld by the court in 2003. The scheme would encourage students from socially and educationally backward regions to pursue higher studies.

A writ petition filed by the Parent Teachers Association in Mahe region submitted that it was a sound policy decision on the part of the territorial administration, as, otherwise, it would be very difficult for Mahe students to compete with those from Puducherry and Karaikal regions and get medical or engineering seats.

HC stays counselling for professional courses in Pondy

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