A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Thursday reserved its order on an appeal filed by the State government against a single judge’s interim order in the Plus Two course cases.
In its interim order, the single judge had directed the State government to sanction provisionally Plus Two schools, courses and additional batches as recommended by a six-member committee headed by the Director, Higher Secondary Education (scrutiny committee), ignoring the Cabinet subcommittee’s recommendations.
The Bench comprising Justice Antony Dominic and Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu reserved its order to September 1 after the conclusion of the arguments of the Advocate General and the counsel for some of the school managements.
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The government in its appeal sought to stay the operation of the single judge’s interim order. Advocate General K.P. Dandapani argued that the government was not heard or allowed to file an affidavit before the single judge passed the order. He also contended that the Cabinet subcommittee had the power to scrutinize and overrule the recommendations made by the committee headed by the HSE director. The Council of Ministers and the government were “the supreme authority in relation to a scrutiny committee”.
The scrutiny committee’s recommendations need not be accepted in its entirety by the Cabinet committee. If the Cabinet committee felt that there were “cogent reasons” for differing with the scrutiny committee’s views, it could do so.
The interim order of the single judge had affected the entire admission process to Plus Two courses, the Advocate General said.
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The Bench, while hearing the arguments of the Advocate General, noted that the government itself was responsible for the mess and it could have been avoided had the government properly implemented a judgment passed earlier by another Division Bench in the Plus Two cases.