Acting on a petition filed by Additional DG of Police M Nageswar Rao for and on behalf of his son, seeking admission into the newly-launched Post Graduate Diploma in Business Analytics (PGDBA) course of IIM, Kolkata, IIT Kharagpur and Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, the Odisha High Court has delivered a landmark judgment while disposing of the writ petition.
Accepting the arguments of petitioner’s advocate Aditya Das, a Division Bench of Justices Indrajit Mahanty and Biswanath Rath on Thursday held the eligibility criteria of a minimum graduate’s formal education of 10+2+4 prescribed for admission to the new PGDBA course to be contrary to the National Education Policy, discriminatory, arbitrary and illegal.
The court has further directed that the 10+2+3 candidates who were outside the eligibility criteria this year be permitted to apply from next year. The court has also directed that a rational method for reaching upon the cutoff marks be maintained in the admissions process, especially when GMAT, GRE scores, etc., are involved; guidelines be formulated and a transparent system of fair consideration of candidates from all streams be put into place for the selection process from the coming year.
Rejecting the manner of consideration of applicants for the PGDBA course by IIM, Kolkata, IIT, Kharagpur and Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata,, the court has directed that prospectively an entrance examination be conducted prescribing a fair and reasonable eligibility criteria giving full right of consideration to graduate candidates from all fields to have a broad-based course.