Madurai
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has dismissed the petition filed by the father of a medical aspirant who sought his daughter to be considered eligible under the 7.5 % horizontal quota for government school students. The petitioner’s daughter had studied in government schools except for Class VI, which she studied in a private aided school.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and B. Pugalendhi observed that the court sympathises with the petitioner’s daughter. However, if any relaxation was given in this petition, it will open up a Pandora's box and there will not be any limit, the judges said.
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The court was hearing the petition filed by R. Arivazhagan who said that his daughter A. Arivika studied in the Panchayat Union School in Navakkollai from Class I to Class V. Due to family circumstances, the family moved to Punnavasal and since there was no government school there, she studied Class VI in an aided minority educational institution.
Thereafter, she studied Class VII to Class XII in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Peravurani. Only because there was no government high school in Punnavasal, his daughter was constrained to study in an aided institution, the petitioner said. He said that his daughter should be considered for admission to the medical courses under the 7.5 % quota.
The petitioner contended that students who studied up to Class VIII in a specified category school or an unaided school under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and the remaining classes up to Higher Secondary in government schools are accepted to be students who have studied in government schools.
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The court said that the issue cannot be taken into consideration. The student studied Class VI in an aided private school and this would definitely be a bar the petitioner's daughter to claim admission under the preferential quota for government school students, as she cannot be termed as a student studied in government schools, the judges said.