Court sets aside key provisions of professional college law

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government suffered a major loss of face yesterday when the Kerala High Court ruled as unconstitutional some of the key provisions of an Act which the government had passed to regulate private self-financing colleges.

The court ruling virtually brings the curtain down on the Act, which the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government headed by the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM) had enacted immediately on assuming power in mid-2006.

The private self-financing colleges' issue had been one of the key election issues last year, and the issue became more controversial when the LDF government passed the Act in an attempt to rein in private managements. Managements of minority Christian and Muslim communities' institutions had voiced their opinion against key provisions of the Act.

The court gave the private managements a big reason to cheer, striking down clauses 3, 7, 8 and 10 of the Act, which means the Act will have no real standing now.

Stung by the reversal at the High Court, state education minister M.A. Baby said the government would go in appeal to the Supreme Court.

Legal sources here said the state government's hopes are rather slim, considering that all the key clauses have been declared void by the high court. Clause 3 deals with the admission criteria, clause 7 with fee fixation, clause 8 concerns minority status of educational institutions and clause 10 deals with admission concessions.

The ruling came from a High Court bench comprising chief justice V.K. Bali, on a petition by the managements of private self-financing colleges.

Opposition leader Oommen Chandy said the LDF government was to blame for the current state of affairs after its decision to go ahead in haste with enacting legislation to regulate the private professional colleges.

Congress party's state president Ramesh Chennithala said Baby ought to consider whether he should continue in his post. "It is up to Baby to consider his continuance in office," Chennithala said.

Leaders of the Left youth and students wings including the Democratic Youth Front of India and the Students Federation of India criticised the court ruling, while Baby said the government had enacted the legislation with the aim of supporting the marginalised sections of society.