Criterion of 75% marks in board exam to avail sports quota struck down by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that prescribing a high minimum percentage of marks in board examinations for availing reservation under the sports quota would defeat the very purpose of such quotas [Dev Gupta vs PEC University of Technology and ors].A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Aravind Kumar stressed that the provision of a sports quota in admissions to educational institutions is to promote sports and sportsmanship in the country"The imposition of the minimum 75% eligibility condition ... does not subserve the object of introducing the sports quota, but is, rather destructive of it; the criterion, in that sense subverted the object and is discriminatory; it therefore, falls afoul of the equality clause, in Article 14 of the Constitution," the Court said while setting such admission norms for public engineering courses in Chandigarh..The bench was hearing an appeal against a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that had dismissed a challenge to the 75 percent benchmark eligibility criterion.Three days after the criterion was announced, the appellant had, on June 27 this year, written to the concerned authorities stating that the 75 percent cut-off was too high.However, he did not get any relief prompting him to approach the High Court.The High Court subsequently dismissed his plea leading to the appeal before the Supreme Court.The top court, at the outset, noted that the objective of sports quota is to promote and encourage those who have excelled and gained a certain degree of prescribed proficiency and achievement in defined competitive sports. Further, having the same cut-off percentage as that of the general category, in this case, can lead to the exclusion of talented but less academically meritorious sportspersons, the Court noted. "For instance, it is quite possible that a sportsperson, who has and continues to represent the country in international Olympic sports, and gained such excellence as to have bagged a medal or two, in say, wrestling, would be altogether excluded in the eventuality of a wrestler, of the same category (but who has never reached the national level) securing 80% marks in the qualifying examination. It is exactly this consequence which this court had warned would be the “unequal application” of a uniform criteria, a wooden equality without regard to the inherent differences, which Article 14 frowns upon, and forbids," the Court said. It was also pointed out that the cut-off percentage was lower for sports quota seats in the non-general category."In such event, it was open to the state to lower the eligibility criterion, for sports quota, to other candidates too; the dissimilarity in treatment is therefore, egregious," the Court held.Further, the top court noted that the policy was suddenly changed only this year. For the previous three years, a student desirous of admission under the sports quota in Chandigarh only needed to have completed their 11th and 12th standard from the Union Territory..The appeal was, therefore, allowed, and the criterion in question was deemed unwarranted and discriminatory. "The reference to, and incorporation of clauses giving effect to such criterion is held unenforceable and void," the Court ruled..However, the bench took note of the fact that, at present, the seats under the sports quota were all filled but for one seat. Therefore, the Court directed that the existing admissions should not be disturbed, and that the admission for the remaining seat should happen as per the earlier criteria..Senior Advocate PS Patwalia appeared for the appellant Dev Gupta. Advocate Sanchar Anand appeared for the PEC University of Technology..[Read Judgment]