The Admission Supervisory Committee (ASC) for Professional Colleges on Monday submitted before the Kerala High Court that its decision to cancel the entrance test conducted by the Kerala Private Medical College Management Association (KPMCMA) for admission to the management seats was lawful and done with the power vested in it.
The Committee filed the statement in response to a petition filed by the KPMCMA challenging an order of the ASC. However the Association submitted that the right to supervise does not take in the power to cancel an examination which was conducted under the guidelines of the Committee.
The Committee submitted that from the beginning of the admission process, the petitioner ought to have got approval at every stage. It was even without entering into the desired agreement with the government that they fixed the date for examination on May 26.
The petitioner purposefully chooses to conduct the entrance test at the fag end whereas the state conducts the test by December every year, inviting the interference of court and end up in its cancellation. It was taking a very lenient view that permission was granted to the petitioner to conduct the entrance test on May 31. That did not mean that the committee is to accept any illegality committed by the petitioner.
It was the duty of the Committee to ensure that the process is fair, transparent, merit-based and non-exploitative. Having brought to the notice of the committee the irregularities and illegalities committed at the conduct of the test, to ensure that process is fair, the best option is to cancel the examination. It is in the best interest of large number of eligible and deserving students that the said entrance test was cancelled. It was only after conducting an inquiry and after having been satisfied by the committee that the complaints made before it was true that the order was issued, the Committee submitted.
Meanwhile, two students - Jamana Shihabudheen of Kilimanoor and Nahla Aboobecker of Punnassery - who impleaded in the case, contended that some students said that the examination was very easy since they had received questions well in advance. “We have sufficient and solid proof to substantiate that the question papers had been leaked out at the hands of the student,” they complained.