In its landmark judgment in the case of illegal admissions to B.Ed course by the Divya College of Education, Jammu, the High Court has, as a matter of principle and policy, incidentally touched on almost all and even hitherto less revealed aspects of the case. Educational authorities will do well to study the judgement closely; they will find that existing rules and procedures are deficit in more than one way. The judgement is almost an advisory for all stakeholders, educational institutions, and students seeking admission, universities, education department and the civil society. Nothing could be more comprehensive and all-embracing.
First and foremost advice is for the Government and the universities. The rules of granting permission to open a private professional educational institution and granting it affiliation to a university have to be clear, transparent and stringent. The system needs foolproof security against misuse of permission or affiliation and also should stipulate punitive action in a situation of violation of rules. The ground reality is that with rapid increase in the population, burgeoning of the middle class in national perspective, rising graph of purchasing power of the people and corresponding opportunities for education up to higher level, all combine to encourage private sector to become an important instrument of spreading education among the people. However, given the financial constraints, it may not be possible for the Government to provide grant-in-aid facility to all private educational institutions. Therefore many new institutions shall have to depend on admission fee as the main source of financial support to keep the institutions running.
Then comes the question of private colleges faced with the dilemma of filling the seats to capacity intake. It is the university which decides the intake capacity of a given institution. A number of factors like space, faculty strength and competence level, student hostel facility and many other things are taken into account. The court has questioned the absolute right of admission seeking students to make selection of institutions they would prefer to join. The judgment considers it an arbitrary decision that has created many difficulties especially for the private educational institutions that are not receiving grant-in aid. Moreover, students seeking admission do not have full information about the institutions they select or reject. The court has hinted that there should be a mechanism in place that would do justice to all institutions where seats are available. In other words, it is unfair to let bulk of students.opt for a particular institution and let the other instructions starve. Non grant-in-aid institutions have equal right to the intake quota in case the number of admissible students is adequate. The Government and the university cannot ignore the fact that a private college that has been given affiliation to the university and has in-take capacity of 300 students should be allowed to starve with 8 admissions while a similar institution has admissions to capacity.
Divya College of Education had filed a case in the High Court seeking regularization of admission of 292 candidates to B.Ed. course. But Jammu University took the stand that the regularization of these cases would be illegal because the college in question had made admissions to B.Ed. course on its own by spot counselling against the left over seats as per eligibility criteria laid down by the University but without involving Central Admission Committee. The court in its judgment upheld that admissions had been done illegally and the students had to be compensated for the loss of one year. The court ordered that an amount of 50,000 rupees per student for 292 affected students will be paid by the institution by way of compensation. But at the same time the court has advised that distribution of selected candidates among the private institutions has to be fair and just so that they are not starved. The judgment also brings under focus the importance of maintaining high standard of education and not compromising with its quality. The Honourable Justice Husnain has rightly observed: “While, academic discipline cannot be sacrificed for the financial interest of one or more private educational institutions and the private educational institutions cannot be permitted to add to the national human resources pool, inefficient and incapable professionals, who may conveniently cover up their inefficiency under the degrees awarded after an academic/training course undergone in such private colleges, still their genuine grievance cannot be ignored or left unaddressed. To illustrate, it would be highly unjust to allot less than 20 students to a college having intake capacity of 334 students, debar it from making admissions on its own and allot 75 students to private B.Ed College having intake capacity of 100 students”.
It is hoped that all stakeholders, education department, university and private colleges union will sit together and discuss the issues that have cropped up from the court judgment and try to find a solution. With all said and done, it is sad that the existing system is irresponsible and insensitive to the interests and career of young students. Society cannot allow anybody to play with the career of our budding youth.
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