AP HC says no to inter admissions being held online as BIE had no legal basis to change system

Chastising the Andhra Pradesh government from washing their hands of the responsibility to conduct and oversee the admission process for intermediate in the state by allowing the Board of Intermediate Education to conduct it online, the state's High Court dismissed the notice issued by the government for online admissions and said that for the current year, the traditional method of conducting exams should be followed. The court also objected to the online admissions being conducted without the government "publicising" it properly, or raising enough awareness about the process.

The state government had argued that the online mode was being relied upon in light of the pandemic, in order to ensure safety of the students. the second phase of online admissions had just commenced on Tuesday. And even though the board appealed to the court that the students had already filled the application forms, the notice was struck down. The board had claimed that the online portal was introduced in order to mitigate the effects of commercialisation of intermediate colleges in the state, which charged exorbitant fee from the students.
 
The petition was filed by the secretary of Central Andhra Junior College Managements' Association, Devarapalle Ramanan Reddy and others, and claimed that the board had not issued clear enough guidelines for the procedure of online admissions. 

The court said that the BIE can go ahead with the online admissions only next year after they have had the chance to consult all stakeholders, and chart out the process thoroughly. Justice U Durgaprasad Rao said the judgment will not impede the government from bringing in a legislation for online admissions and for framing rules accordingly, and added that there was currently no legal basis for the BIE to issue the notice for online admission, and that the AP state government should not have transferred the responsibility to conduct admissions onto the colleges.