Minority colleges want to skip FYJC online admissions

Mumbai: A minority institution from Nashik has challenged a state government resolution of January 2017 that brings all minority institutions under the purview of the FYJC online admission process claiming that they have a right to admit students from the minority community and the same should be applied to all the seats with them rather than keeping it to 50 per cent. With SSC results being declared on June 13, the petition gains prominence as minority colleges form a major chunk of educational institutions offering junior college education in the city and state.

Until last year, the government filled up 25 per cent of the seats in minority institutions through the open category while the remaining 75 per cent seats were reserved for students belonging to minority community (50 per cent), in-house admissions (20 per cent) and management quota (five per cent). 

The minority institutions had to fill up these seats during the zero period, that is before the FYJC online admissions conducted by the deputy director of education began. Minority institutions had to surrender the seats they were unable to fill up in the 75 per cent seats available to them to the department to be included in the open category.

The resolution said that admissions to minority institutions would also be done online to increase transparency and accountability and to ensure that the institutions filled ssup the seats as per the reservations.

However, the institute P.N. Mehta Junior College, Nashik through the petition challenged the resolution stating that as per Article 21 and 30 (1) of the Constitution of India their rights were safeguarded and the government had no right to interfere in how thy manage and administer the college. The petition has prayed for minority institutions to be excluded from the FYJC online admission process and thus sought protection of the rights.

The petition will be coming up for hearing on Thursday. In a judgement in the earlier part of the year, the chief justice of Bombay high court had upheld the claim of a minority institution to be exempted from having to admit students under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The court held that the rights of minority institutions were protected by the Constitution and hence could not be infringed upon by the government.