SC to hear Maharashtra's 'Best of 5' appeal on Jul 9

The Supreme Court on Tuesday posted for a Friday hearing on the Maharashtra government's appeal challenging a Bombay High Court judgement setting aside the 'best of 5' system for Secondary School Certificate Board
students with regard to Class XI admissions. 

A three-judge bench of justices Altamas Kabir, Mukundakam Sharma and AK Patnaik, asked the state government
to submit a full copy of the impugned judgement for its perusal.

The Maharashtra government submitted before the apex court that the verdict needed to be set aside as it affected
the interest of over 16 lakh students.

The high court had quashed the best of 5 rule, saying it discriminated against students from other boards and also directed that online admission process for Class XI could commence immediately.

Setting aside the system, the court had said it discriminated against the students from other boards such as Indian Certificate of Secondary Education and Central Board of Secondary Education.

The state board this year had come out with a new rule according to which marks obtained in five subjects would be
considered -- out of the six subjects -- for the purpose of issuing the Class X mark list. The subject in which a student fared worst would be left out.

The decision was taken because the SSC board felt that the ICSE and CBSE marking systems were more liberal and gave advantage to their students in the Class X exam. But some parents of ICSE students challenged the system, saying the new SSC system is discriminatory, and even the ICSE board be allowed to adopt the same system.