Admission in professional colleges based on ten plus marks:SC

New Delhi, May 14 (UNI) The Supreme Court today cleared the decks for admission in professional courses in Tamil Nadu without Common Entrance Tests (CET) on the basis of the marks secured by the students in ten plus two examination.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices R V Raveendran and M K Sharma refused to stay the operation of the impugned Madras High Court judgement delivered in February this year permitting the state government to go ahead with the admissions in about 200 professional colleges like medical, engineering and BEd courses and other courses for the academic year 2008-09.

The High Court had upheld the validity of the state government notification abolishing CET for admissions in professional courses on the grounds that students from rural areas in the state were at a disadvantage while competing with the students from the urban areas.

The High Court had dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the state government notification on the grounds that under the impugned notification merit has become the first casualty.

The apex court adjourned the hearing for the third week of July.

UNI SC SY RP DS1613