A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday left it to the Central government, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Indian Bankers Association (IBA) to decided whether the minimum percentage of marks in the qualifying examinations required for getting education loan could be reduced in respect of Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribe (SC/ST) candidates.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice A.M. Shafique was disposing of a writ petition filed by some SC/ST students against the action of the State Bank of Travancore (SBT) in rejecting their application for education loans for studying in the management seats.
The court observed that as per the earlier guidelines, the minimum percentage of marks in the qualifying examination to enable the SC/ST candidates to apply for an education loan was 50 per cent.
According to some of the petitioners, their applications for education loan for admission to management quota were rejected on the ground that they had not secured 60 per cent of marks in the qualifying examination. The SBT submitted that it had adopted the guidelines issued by the IBA in this regard. Therefore, the education loan could be allotted only to an applicant who had obtained 60 per cent marks in the qualifying examination.
