SC ALLOWS UGC DISTRICT STUDENT INTAKE TO MEET SHORTFALL
The Supreme Court yesterday (7) adopted the 2nd option to admit students to the Universities for the academic year 2011/2012 who have secured the pass marks from other districts to fill the shortfalls from the agreed proposed additional number of 5609 as a result the students in certain districts failed to secure the stipulated minimum pass marks.
The Bench comprised Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, Justices N. G. Amaratunga and K. Sripavan concluded the proceedings with the agreed 2nd option.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) had sought permission from the Supreme Court to admit students to Universities for the academic year 2011/2012 who have secured the pass marks from other dis-
UGC had sought permission from the Supreme Court to admit students to Universities for the academic year 2011/2012 who have secured the pass marks from other districts to fill the shortfall from the agreed proposed number
tricts to fill the shortfall from the agreed proposed number.
The UGC made this proposal to refrain from selecting students for admission from those districts who have not secured the stipulated pass marks.
All the parties in the fundamental rights petitions agreed for the 2nd option and the Court adopted it for the resolution of the issue. Former Chief Justice Shirani A. Bandaranayake on August 30 advised the UGC to take more number of students to the university admission and increase the infrastructure to accommodate them. She had also recollected a similar situation that arose in 1991 and pointed out that it was resolved by the intake of more students.
Counsel Faisz Musthapha PC instructed by Gowry Shangary Thavarasha appearing for the UGC had told Court that the UGC was having four methods. Former Chief Justice recommended the 3rd method which would accommodate an approximate number of additional 5,609 students and she had also suggested to take an extra intake of 25% to each faculty of the normal admission of 21,000 for the current academic year of 2011/2012.
Inundated with fundamental rights petitions of several hundred of G.C.E advanced level students in respect of Z-Score calculation, the Supreme Court has already granted leave to proceed with another set of six petitions for the alleged infringement of their fundamental right to equality.
The Petitioners are students who sat for the G.C.E (Advanced Level) Examination held in August 2011 under the old syllabus and new syllabus in different streams. They cited Commissioner General of Examinations, University Grants Commission, Higher Education Minister S.B.Dissanayake, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardene and the Attorney General as Respondents.
Saliya Peiris, Manohara de Silva PC, M. A. Sumanthiran instructed by Mohan Balendra and Sanjeeva Jayawardena with Rajeev Amarasuriya, Sandamali Chandrasekara and Niranjan Arulpragasam instructed by G. G. Arulpragasam appeared for several sets of Petitioners.