A third judge, who was hearing the case following a split verdict by the Division Bench, concurred with Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar who had quashed the resolution in August. However, Justice A P Deshpande, who had heard the matter with the Chief Justice, deferred his opinion and upheld the government resolution.

Subsequently the case was heard by Justice J N Patel, who has now agreed with the view taken by the Chief Justice and quashed the GR on grounds that it was upsetting the right to equality.

Chief Justice Kumar, in his judgement, had restrained the government from acting on the resolution but stated that the admissions already given on the basis of the formula would not be disturbed. “The remaining vacant seats and additional 10 per cent seats sanctioned and allowed by the State, particularly in preferential colleges, shall not be filled on the basis of the percentile formula,” he had held.

“Admission would be strictly on merit-cum-choice with reference to the percentage of marks obtained by students in the qualifying examination,” Chief Justice Kumar had observed. He had, however, concluded that “till the judgment is pronounced by a third judge, the state is injuncted from making any further admissions” with certain exceptions and disposed of the petition.

Justice Deshpande, on the other hand, had held that “the introduction of the statistical formula of ‘percentile’ goes to achieve normalisation of percentage of marks secured by students of different boards and is, hence, not violative of Article 14 of the Constitution”. “I also hold that assuming that the percentage formula extends some benefit or preference to students from the SSC board, the same is permissible and not illegal,” he had observed and dismissed the petition.

The court was hearing a PIL by a parent of an ISCE student aggrieved by the newly implemented normalisation policy for admission to junior college. During hearing, the Court did not stay the admission process.

As a result, admissions got over in most colleges. But the Court had specified that the process would be subject to the outcome of the judgement.

Will go through text & decide next move: Minister

Sports, Education and Youth Affairs Secretary Sanjay Kumar said after the High Court verdict, “I have not yet gone through the entire judgement; so I will not be able to comment. Once I get to go through it, we will decide whether to go in for an appeal.”

However, academicians from all the boards of education welcomed the ruling. While many agreed that a system to ensure uniformity in the admission process was necessary, they disapproved of the way in which the controversial issue was being implemented during this year’s admission process.