Supreme Court affirms judgement on Law college entrance

Wasantha RAMANAYAKE

COLOMBO: The Supreme Court affirming the judgment of the Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed the appeals filed by the Incorporated Council of the Legal Education and Principal of the Sri Lanka Law College challenging the admission of seven students to the Law College.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court affirmed the determination of the Court of Appeal that the only criterion to admit the students to the Sri Lanka Law College was the Law College Entrance Examination.

The Court of Appeal recently delivering its judgment ordered the respondent-appellants, the Incorporated Council of the Legal Education and Principal of the Sri Lanka Law College to admit seven Tamil Medium students who had been successful at the re-scrutiny of the answer scripts of the entrance examination but refused their admission to the Law College in terms of a subsequent interview.

The Court held the students to the college should be admitted solely on the basis of the Entrance Examination.

Being aggrieved by the judgment of the Court of Appeal the appellants appealed to the Supreme Court seeking to set aside the judgement on the basis that the Court of Appeal had no Writ Jurisdiction to do so.

The Bench comprised Justice Raja Fernando, Justice Nimal Gamini Amaratunga and Justice Andrew Somawansa.

The petitioners seven, Tamil Medium students in their application to the Court of Appeal stated that after an order of the Supreme Court to re-scrutinize the answer scripts of Tamil Medium students who had obtained over and above a particular point of mark, were called for an interview.

They stated that they had assumed to have been admitted to the Law College on the basis of the re-scrutiny of the answer scripts following the order of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court made the order in pursuance of several Fundamental Rights applications filed by several Tamil medium candidates.

They stated that there were 21 such candidates who had been called for the interview which was conducted by a panel including the Attorney General and one Attorney-at-Law K. Neelakandan.

The petitioners stated that later they were informed that they were not qualified to be admitted to the Law College since the interview board was not satisfied with their performance.

They alleged that several candidates who had obtained lower marks at the entrance examination than the petitioners had been admitted on the basis of the performance at the interview.

Petitioner stated that the candidates were admitted to the Law College solely on the basis of the Entrance Examination and there were no provision to grant marks on the basis of the interviews.

M.A. Sumanthiran with Viran Corea and Hamsana Vamadeva and U.A. Razee appeared for the students.

Deputy Solicitor General Shaveendra Fernando, Senior State Counsel Nerin Pulle appeared for the Incorporated Council of Legal Education, the Attorney General and the Principal of the Law College.