Students who pass the class X Board examination in a CBSE school cannot claim automatic admission to class XI in the same school if the institution switches its affiliation to the State Board for higher secondary classes, the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) has ruled.
Allowing a writ appeal preferred by a private school based in Thoothukudi district, Justices Nooty Ramamohana Rao and S.S. Sundar said the schooling facility offered by such institutions must be considered to have come to an end when students pass out of Class X. “It is for the student concerned to exercise the option of either continuing in CBSE pattern in Class XI and XII or switching over to State Board syllabus. If a student decides to continue his studies in Standard XI and under the CBSE pattern, he has to obviously seek admission in some other educational institution where such facilities are available,” the Bench said.
“On the other hand, if he [the student] opts to switch over to State Board of education, then he can seek continuation in the same school. But even in such a case, he has to apply for admission afresh,” the judge said concurring with submissions made by senior counsel Isaac Mohanlal appearing for the Principal of Sakthi Vinayagar Hindu Vidyalaya in Thoothukudi.
The lawyer submitted that though 93 students had passed out of Class X from the appellant school in 2015-16, which was affiliated to the CBSE till class X, all of them could not be accommodated in higher secondary classes since the institution offered only two groups with biology and mathematics as major subjects in Classes XI and XII under the State Board syllabus. Nevertheless, agreeing equally with G. Prabhu Rajadurai, counsel for a student who was not allowed to continue his education in the appellant school, that the norms of admission to Class XI should have been notified much earlier, the judges directed the State government to instruct all private schools in the State to publish the admission norms in advance and display them on the notice boards.
