VIJAYAWADA: Striking down a notification by the Board of Intermediate Education for conducting admissions to Intermediate colleges online in the State, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh on Monday ordered it to conduct in-person admissions for the coming academic year. Delivering the verdict, Justice U Durgaprasad Rao said the judgment will not impede the government from bringing in a legislation for online admissions and for framing rules accordingly.
Policy makers, however, should consider the rights of the beneficiaries before introducing a new system of admissions and it should be widely publicised, the court ruled. The verdict was based on petitions by Central Andhra Junior College Managements Association secretary Devarapalle Ramanan Reddy and a few others, challenging the introduction of new system of online admissions.
Justice Rao said that there was no legal basis for the notification issued by BIE for online admissions and no effort had been made to protect the interest of the beneficiaries. He also found fault with the BIE claims of admitting the students to the colleges on merit, since all Class X students had been declared passed. Referring to BIE’s stand that lakhs of students have already submitted applications online for admissions, the judge said the new system could not be supported based on the argument.
Framing rules
He observed that the Andhra Pradesh State government should not have transferred the rights of framing rules of admissions to colleges: it should have framed them by itself.
There was no legal sanctity for the transfer of powers to BIE, he said and adding that the government could not shy away from its responsibility. The court also said the notification should have specified that the online mode for admissions was adopted due to Covid-19.
Court: Publicise before starting new system
Policy makers should consider the rights of the beneficiaries before introducing a new system of admissions and it should be widely publicised, the court ruled and added that there was no legal basis for the notification issued by BIE