SC flays Kerala Govt for not providing security to students

New Delhi, July 20 (UNI) The Supreme Court today lambasted the Left Front Kerala government for not providing security to the students taking Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to the medical science courses.

Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices Tarun Chatterjee and R V Raveendran asked the counsel for state of Kerela, ''What type of state government are you? You cannot provide security to the students and fail to control those disrupting the entrance tests.'' Earlier, Senior counsel for the petitioner namely Kerala Private Medical Colleges Management Association, Mr Ruingtun Nariman contended before the court, ''it was a state's sponsored terrorism.'' The Supreme Court fixed July 23 for hearing of the petition seeking permission for the admission of students on the basis of merit in 10+2 examination.

The petitioner also requested the court to allow an alternative entrance test to be held in Kochin under the adequate security provided by the Central government security agencies.

The activists of Students Federation of India (SFI) and the All India Students Federation (AISF), the student wings of the ruling left front in the state led by Ms Sindhu Joy, entered the TOC-H school auditorium on June 23, 2007, destroyed furnitures and windows, and forced about 3000 students and parents to leave the venue without taking the test.

The applicant association was constituted persuant to the directions of the apex court and have about nine medical colleges as its members.

The left front students do not want the entrance test to be conducted by private colleges and have been pressing for the admission on the basis of CET conducted by the state government.

UNI