HC quashes govt order disallowing transfer of PG student

Madras High Court today quashed a government order disallowing transfer of post graduate students from one institution to another within a state.
Justice K K Sasidharan was allowing a plea by a MBA student, who challenged the validity of Clause 7 (ix) of the Government order of the Higher Education Department which denies transfer to students.
The student, Karthika, who is native of Salem district, was pursuing MBA course at PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore and had sought transfer to Sona College of Salem because of her mother's ill-health.
Even though both colleges accepted her request, the Director of Technical Education said she was not permitted to take the transfer because of the clause.

"...There is no logic or reasoning with respect to the finding...The Government cannot take a decision to ban transfer of PG Student in a generalised manner," the judge said.
The Government Order dated October 23, 2008 does not spell out any justifiable reasons to impose restrictions on transfer of student from one institution to another.

"When there is only one Technical University and there is only one Syllabus applicable to all colleges under Anna University, there is no rationale behind taking a decision to prohibit PG students to transfer from one Institution to another inside of the state," the judge said.

Justice Sasidharan said the order did not contain any material as to why such a drastic decision was taken by the government and said there would be some cases in which the students may be compelled to seek transfer for multiple reasons.
The fact that the PG course is of two years duration only and transfer is normally accorded after completion of one year cannot be a valid reason as stated by the Department, the Judge said.
He also said no other valid reasons except the above were submitted by the Government Higher education Department.
The Judge, while observing that there should be genuine reasons for not accepting transfers, said Karthika has to take care of her mother and allowing all other stream of students transfers and denying it to PG Students would amount to selective discrimination.

The Judge then quashed the above clause which is "discriminate in nature" and directed Karthika to make a fresh application which would be disposed of by authorities in two weeks.