Kerala Professional Colleges Act

Swasraya Niyamam - Kerala Govt Vs High Court of Kerala

Once again it has been proved that all has not been lost to the people of Kerala. And they are not as wretched as the Government thought. The Honourable High Court of Kerala by one of its beautiful and bold Judgments has plucked off all the fangs contained in the "Swasrya Niyamam" (self financed institution bill) which was passed by the ruling communist government in an unnecessary haste in the Assembly. Hereafter the Govt can only lick and not bite. It can even bark if it so prefers!

In a Judgment on 4^th January 2007 Division bench of the Kerala High Court chaired by Chief Justice VK Bali and Justice PR Raman nullified most of the clauses of the Kerala Self Financed Institution bill, which contradicted the Indian constitution.

Those nullified clauses include almost all disputed ones regarding admission of students, Govt quota, fee structure, reservation, determination of minority status etc. Of the total seats herearter100% belongs to the managements and they under the regulatory bodies can function as institutions of honor. Politicians can mind their own business if they have any. As meddling with colleges are passe.

The Government “quota” and Govt imposed “fee concessions” etc have become irrelevant. But the Hon Court has done one favor; it has not nullified the entire bill and has agreed to one aspect of the bill that over seeing bodies are required to ensure high standards and to end exploitations.

It was the advice given by the Honourable Court which has perhaps done the maximum damage to the Government’s image. It said “The Government should encourage self financed institutions which share the burden of imparting quality education to the students, and asked whether it is right to destroy them for the good work they are doing (the meaning being “the Govt is destroying it”).

The contradictory bill had in its preface, with icings of one-liners of previous Court Judgments. Honourable High Court of Kerala had to strike one more blow on the head of the hapless Government by a rebuke for its quoting of single lines from previous Court judgments - without explaining the context. The Court rightly quoted Supreme Court Judgment regarding the quoting of one liners without giving full context (Inamdar case).

The court rulings do not deter the real revolutionaries, The Chief and the Education Minister presently at Kolkata have threatened to go for appeal at the Supreme Court and stated they will look in to what way the bill can be protected. And they claimed it was a well thought out bill. Only thing forgotten to think was about the Constitution of India!

When other states let self financed institutions to flourish there and tens of thousands of students from Kerala study there spending good amount of their parents’ earnings, what went wrong with these leaders is hard to understand.

If quota, reservations, fee subsidies are a must in private system also it can be implemented not at the cost of the institutions, It is the Govt which collect the taxes. The largesse of the Government should be at Government’s cost. If it has no money better keep quiet and save the huge expenses it incurs in litigations. This money can be effectively used to help poor students in the form of scholarships of other doles.

Our state ministers can be better advised by the Central Government to visit the neighboring states like Tamilnadu or Karnataka. They should be subjected to appear for a test after the course regarding the running of self financed institutions, how they make money out of it and divert the same for the welfare of the poor students of their state. Those who fail should be dismissed from the post.

It has turned out to be a misfortune of the State that our ministers have earned an aura of “holier than thou” attitude. No one on earth can educate them including the courts, as they know every thing under the sun and more things over the sun. To the people of Kerala “Anubhavam Guru” (experience is the teacher). You elected them’ now experience the perils those follow.