The Madras High Court has set aside clause 7(ix) of a GO dated October 23, 2008 of the Higher Education Department, which prohibited students of part time degree courses and postgraduate courses like MBA, MCA, ME, MTech and MSc from seeking transfer from one institution to another.
Justice K K Sasidharan, who quashed the clause, granted liberty to the petitioner to apply to the Director of Technical Education (DTE), who should consider the same taking into account the consent given by the transferor and transferee colleges, within two weeks.
K Karthika, native of Salem, joined the MBA course at PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore during 2012-13. Later, she wanted to sale be transferred to Sona College of Technology in Salem. Both the transferor and transferee colleges accepted it. However, the DTE denied permission citing clause 7(ix) of the October 23, 2008 GO. This clause banned transfer before the completion of one academic year. Hence, the present writ petition.
The judge observed that there was no logic or reasoning in stipulating completion of one year. There would be cases in which students would be compelled to seek transfer from one institution to another for multiple reasons. The government could not take a decision to ban transfer in a generalised manner. There was only one technical University, Anna University and there was only one set of syllabus applicable to all the colleges under that University. Such being the case, there was no rationale behind banning such transfer, the judge added.