Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, School Education & Sports said, “Earlier Mumbai was divided into two districts — greater Mumbai and suburbs. As a result students from Thane and other areas would find it difficult securing admissions to junior colleges in these regions. However, now we will consider MMR as an entire unit. Any student residing in Mumbai Metropolitan region will be given preference in the form of 70 per cent reservation in all the colleges. The rest —30 per cent of seats— will be for those residing outside the MMR.” The MMR region consists of Mumbai (city), Mumbai (suburbs), Thane and Raigad districts.

Since the court ruling was made in 2003, no college in the city has followed the 70:30 rule. Last year, the education department abruptly sent out circulars in July, even as severalcolleges had filled up most of their seats. While some colleges followed the rule, many did not. Soon, a public interest litigation was filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the government’s decision to implement the 70:30 formula. The High Court stayed the admission process for a week after which the government withdrew the circular for the last academic year.