HC strikes down sections of Colleges Act in Kerala
Nothing short of a miserable new year is unfolding for the CPM-led Left Democratic Front government in Kerala with two serious setbacks of the judicial kind coming in the first four days of the new year, even as the party leadership is facing the ...
By TNN |
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Nothing short of a miserable new year is unfolding for the CPM-led Left Democratic Front government in Kerala with two serious setbacks of the judicial kind coming in the first four days of the new year, even as the party leadership is facing the tall task of solving simmering intra-party feuding.
On Wednesday, the Kerala High Court asked the government why it was shying away from ordering a CBI inquiry into the SNC Lavalin case, even as the government sought continuance of a vigilance inquiry into the matter. On Thursday, the High Court has dealt another crippling blow, ruling that some of the key sections of the Left government’s prestigious legislation on private self-financing colleges were “unconstitutional”.
Considering writ petitions filed by the private college management associations, the court ruled that sections 3,7,8 (b and c) and 10 of the Kerala Professional Colleges Act, 2006, were unconstitutional. These respectively dealt with admissions through a single window scheme of entrance examinations, fee determination factors, government’s powers in determining minority status of institutions, and reservations for various communities.
Representatives of managements have welcomed the decision, stating that the court ruling vindicated their stand that it was not viable to run private professional colleges at the fee rates that had been determined by the government. State education minister MA Baby has stated that the government would go in appeal against the ruling to the Supreme Court.
The Students Federation of India has called for an education bandh on January 16 in protest against the high court ruling. The ruling is particularly hurting for the government because the LDF had spent the first half of last year opposing the previous United Democratic Front government’s policy regarding self financing colleges, and when it came to power in May 2006 it enacted legislation on the private colleges within just a month. All that effort now appears to have come to nought with the court ruling.
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The development comes even as a factional feud is becoming evident within the CPM, with sharp differences between the official faction identified with the party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and the camp associated with chief minister VS Achuthanandan. In the latest incident that pointed to factional rivalry, the chief minister said he had not been informed about the state going in for Asian Development Bank funding for five city corporations while Mr Vijayan said the CM himself had attended two meetings where the matter was discussed.
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