Apex court puts seal of approval on Maharashtra's 'best-five' education policy

TheSupreme Court has approved an amendment made by the Maharashtra government for ‘best-five’ affected Secondary School Certificate (SSC) students and also allowed Indian Certificate of School Education (ICSE) students who wish to attend junior and senior colleges to either opt for the policy or contest it at an appropriate forum.

This ruling has put to rest the two-year controversy over the state’s controversial `best-five policy’ that allowed different combinations of subject scores for SSC and ICSE students to apply for admission to junior colleges.

Offering relief to at least 16 lakh students who were affected by the complicated and discriminatory policy, the courthas directed thatthe ‘best-five rule’ be made applicable to students appearing for the next SSC examination for admission into junior colleges.

However, this direction is subject to the rider that the same best-five rule also be made applicable to students passing the ICSE examination. In their case, the rule would be restricted to the subjects in Groups I and II (as per their curriculum) only and not extend to Group III subjects.

There is a further rider that if an ICSE student feels that he should also get the advantage of subjects in Group III, he shall have the option to proceed on the basis of an average of all the seven subjects without applying the best-five rule.

The court said: “Thus, in case he exercises that option, his percentage shall be calculated by arriving at the average of all the seven subjects.”

The top court ruling has come on a challenge to a Bombay high court judgment that had scrapped the best-five policy, stating that this formula designed for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) board students discriminated against students from other boards.

“Today’s order is a win-win for both the contesting parties,” said the state’s lawyer Sanjay V Kharde. A detailed copy of the judgment couldn’t be made available till late evening.

Kharde explained that the bench, headed by justice VS Sirpurkar, who is slated to retire on Friday, has finalised its interim order passed in July last year. In fact, the state had amended the regulations in line with the interim order.