New Delhi, July 10: In a bid to resolve the confusion over admissions into hundreds of Unaided Minority Professional Educational Institutions (UMEI), the Supreme Court today issued notices to all states and referred a bunch of petitions to a constitution bench to interpret the law laid down by it in an earlier judgement. A bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare and Justice S B Sinha referred the petitions, including those from the minority institutions in Karnataka and Kerala, to a five-judge constitution bench after counsels for institutions questioned the right of the state to regulate admissions for their colleges.
The five-judge bench, which would commence hearing on July 22, would examine two questions - to what extent the states can regulate admissions to private unaided colleges and to what extent the state could regulate the capitation fee charged by such institutions. The bench headed by the Chief Justice today sought assistance of attorney general Soli J Sorabjee in the matter.
According to the private unaided colleges, the Supreme Court in the recent judgement on minority educational institutions had given freedom to the institutions regarding admissions. However, the counsel for the state governments cited the judgement in the T M A Pai case claiming that the state was given authority to regulate admissions as well as the capitation fee charged by the institutions. Bureau Report