Observing that a mother cannot discriminate against her children, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the State Government to consider distributing free laptops to students of university constituent colleges.
“The students of the university college are the children of the State, like the students of Government and Government Aided Schools and Colleges and they cannot be discriminated,” Justice K K Sasidharan observed while disposing of a petition seeking to extend the benefit of free laptops to students studying in constituent colleges of State universities.
Originally, Senthil Kumar, a final year BCA student from the Madurai Kamaraj University College, filed a petition seeking to direct the Government to provide free laptop to him in accordance with a Government Order issued by the Special Programme Implementation Department. He contended that the State cannot discriminate against students of constituent colleges.
Responding to the petition, Additional Advocate General K Chellapandian submitted that a policy decision to extend the benefits of free laptops to the students of the university colleges is under consideration. Justice K K Sasidharan said the Government should be given breathing time to take a decision, in view of the heavy financial implication involved. He directed the Higher Education Dept and Special Programme Implementation Department to take a decision on or before April 30, 2013 and disposed of the petition.