June 11: The Jai Hind college management and Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board filed a notice of motion against the Mumbai University circular on the new admission policy in Bombay high court today.

Talking to Express Newsline, Principal N W Shivdasani of Jai Hind college said: ``We have been forced to move court as the recent university circular did not have any proper guidelines over the status of minority colleges, and we hope to get a stay on the admission procedure by Thursday.''

Reportedly, some other colleges are also planning to seek legal help to resolve the issue. On the other hand, however, the Forum For Fairness In Education, which was mainly instrumental in bringing about the new admission changes in the varsity, has also decided to intervene in view of the May 5 Bombay high court judgment that said that merit should be the only criterion at the time of admissions. The Forum member Prof Jeetendra Shah stated: ``We are going to question the need for another judge to resolve the issue when the matter is still pending before the chief justice in two separate writ petitions one of them filed by us and another by the same HSNC Board on centralisation issue.

``Forum is very clear that the minority rights are not in question so long as they are within the Supreme Court judgement of 1992.''Chandrakant Sanghvi, one of the trustees of Shri Vile Parle Kelvani Mandal which runs five colleges of arts, science and commerce (including Mithibai) commented: ``The concerned state government circular on the admission policy had clearly stated that the new rules are subject to the pending court cases of the centralisation of admissions issue. So how can the university expect us to blindly follow the directives?''

While the Vice-Chancellor Dr Snehalata Deshmukh was not available for comment, the University Registrar Dr Jairam Chavan, said: ``We are only implementing the state directives and if colleges disobey them then it amounts to contempt of court.''

A principal of a reputed South Mumbai college, though, said that it is highly illogical to follow the present admission pattern. ``Since we cannot refuse the forms from any student my college itself has received around 5000 forms so far in the Commerce faculty. This is a sheer waste of paper, time and labour,'' said the principal on condition of anonymity. However, the deputy secretary of higher education, M A Sarpotdar,said affected students should immediately file a complaint with the university which will then send a flying squad to the concerned college.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.